This morning I ran a half marathon as part of the Women's Fitness Festival and had been planning on a PR. Unfortunately, it was also supposed to hit 105 today, and even at 6 am, it was already well into the low 60s. Not good.

Anyway, we started around 7:!5 and it was hot easily by mile 3 or so. I mean, everyone was just pouring sweat. But, miraculously enough, I was able to hang with a PR-pace for the first half. Just after mile 8 or so, the heat really started affecting me. I felt super heavy and sluggish and water, my S caps and honey stinger energy chews were just not cutting it. I literally almost quit and started walking at mile 12-12.5, but my old running coach caught up with me and started pushing me to go on. Well, you can't really quit RIGHT in front of your coach, so I pulled my *kitten* together and got across the line, just about 3 minutes shy of my PR. Ah well, that's life.

BUT the best part of my day was meeting 2004 Olympian and American marathon record holder, Deena Kastor. She was at the event and hanging out with my training group (Fleet Feet) and I was lucky enough to snatch a bit of her time and got a photo with her. She even signed my bib! I'm not one to normally get starstruck, but I gotta say, this has got to be one of the highlights of my running career. I would have NEVER thought, four years ago when I decided to start running that I'd meet an olympian and record holder and that it would be so meaningful to me. Running really is life changing.

Here's a picture of the two of us: