Allan's Auburn Half Recap & a Winner

Sometimes you have to listen to your body and do what it tells you and that's exactly what I did this past Saturday. After being awake most of Friday night and feeling sick to my stomach when the alarm went off on Saturday morning I took a few minutes to gauge how I was feeling and erring on the side of caution I decided not to run the Auburn Classic Half Marathon. Remember how Talladega went when I decided just to go ahead and run?! Yep, not repeating that again soon if I can help it! Allan headed off to Auburn and met Slick (my best friend) to run with him. This was Slick's first half and I hate I wasn't there to run with them but from what I hear they entertained themselves and had a great time running together. He's already eyeing his second half marathon and suggested to Allan that they do a full marathon.

Allan and Slick being their normal selves pre-race

When I harassed asked Allan to write a recap this is what I received in my inbox yesterday:

"Suz,

I enjoyed my half marathon in Auburn this weekend.  I was able to reminisce the whole course passing places I spent time in college.  It just wasn’t all I expected from a fully sponsored half marathon.  The road support was pretty secure, but nothing special.  Organization seemed fine, but nothing overdone.  The course was great for someone like me who spent time (insert note from Suz: Allan means he spent time at all these places during college) at literally every mile on the course, but I can't imagine running this race if I wasn’t from there or if I was slower than 2 hours.  It seemed people were packing up and headed out when me and my friend finished.  Food was gone except some cut bananas and hard, stale rye bread leftover (... My favorite post race snack).  The medal was not much to show anyone if it happened to be your first half marathon.  I have only run two half marathons but I have been to about 15 now.  I was hoping this might have been a little more special, but seemed pretty lame.  I could have woke up and run this on a Saturday morning in Auburn with no police support, food, or people and it would have felt exactly the same.  Which isn’t bad, just another couple miles on the road I guess.  But Congratulations to “Slick” for finishing your first half marathon!  Wish it could have been a more exciting finish, but at least we ran it together.

-Allan"

Post-race picture-I swear they are so similar that it's terrifying at times

In 2012 the race was cancelled due to a tornado warning and even with a completely new course it doesn't sound like it was a great race at least from Allan's perspective. I wasn't there so I won't speak to anything he talked about but I will say that based on the chatter on their facebook page and all the talk of sponsors I was expecting the guys to have a bigger selection of post-race food especially since they finished at 2:23:03. A race should always have enough of everything for everyone to have post-race. Will this be on our race calendar in 2014? Honestly I still have yet to run this so I will probably run it but I'm pretty sure Allan is one and done on this course. There is another half in Auburn in late April but I'm in a wedding that same day so I'll have to sit that one out.

On to the winner!!! I said I would post this on Monday but since someone took their sweet time with their race report I waited. I'm always excited when we host a giveaway and even more excited when someone I've become friends with through blogging is the lucky winner. The winner of our 2013 goals prize pack is....

Lucky #7!!!!

# 7 belongs to Christa

Congratulations Christa!!! I'm really honored to call Christa my friend. She's an inspiration to me in ways she will never know. With her permission I've previously talked about her on our blog since she is a breast cancer survivor and that's one of the big causes we run for. If you guys want to read the blog of a woman who shows the true definition of strength day in and day out then you need to check out her blog. Christa-I've got your address so your prize will be in the mail just as soon as I can box it up!

I've got several blog posts I've been meaning to write but I won't lie I haven't taken the time to write them down because my life is nuts right now. I spent three days tearing down wallpaper at the farm and I am finally done with all of it! My sister is due with her baby any day now so every sound that my phone makes causes me to jump. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!



Have you had a race in a city you were excited to run in but the race itself was disappointing?

Anything exciting going on with anyone right now? (I'm about to catch up on your blogs, I promise!)