FitOne Inagural Half Marathon

On Saturday I ran a half marathon. It was one of the coolest and hardest things that I have ever done. It was an emotional and life altering experience. Emotional because at every mile marker they had a picture of a child who was sick and had a story about them. It was heartbreaking to see the children who have to suffer through all kinds of illnesses but at the same time heartening because of the great care they receive at the hands of the doctors and nurses at St Luke's. St Luke's Children's Hospital is the beneficiary of the event and it felt so good to be helping, in a very small way.
I was so impressed with all of the volunteers. It felt amazing to, at every mile, have a smiling face and someone telling me that I was doing a great job. There were even some cheerleaders from a local high school who volunteered to cheer the participants. Also the comradery was amazing, so many people there and they were all so nice and helpful to one another. It was such a cool experience.
I ran most of the race, probably all but about three miles of the total 13.44 of the course. My knee started hurting around mile 4 and never let up. I was really disappointed about this because I trained so hard and never had any problems with it and then all the sudden had a lot of pain on the day of the race. I could have finished sooner and stronger if it weren't for my knee. Endurance wise I never really felt like I needed to stop, so that was good. Next time hopefully I won't have any issues with my knee. I am excited to see what I can do when my knee is in good shape. :)
I managed to finish the race in 2 hours and 54 minutes, an average pace of 13.5 minutes per mile overall.
If you follow this link and type my name in the search bar then there is a video of me crossing (or rather almost limping over) the finish line: http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-10561#

Here are some pics from race day: