Pittsburgh Half Marathon...

It's true...I did it! And it was AWESOME!!! This was my first Half Marathon and it definitely won't be my last. Yesterday morning I woke early and headed downtown to where the Pittsburgh Marathon and Half Marathon Race was taking place. There were 16,000 people running and it was crazy! the streets of Pittsburgh were filled with runners. The race started at 7:30 am and it was a warm 72 degrees. The gun went off to start the race...and I was off. And I felt great! I was so excited and so filled with adrenaline. It started to rain and then it started to pour and it down poured for almost the entire race. nothing like splish splashing for 13.1 miles. It was still so much fun. I did pick this race because it said it was "surprising flat and fast". Fast, yes, Flat? Um, WRONG! I never knew Pittsburgh was so Hilly. We had some seriously major inclines and I was not prepared for them, Columbus Ohio is FLAT. But I totally endured it and my thighs and butt burned, but it was totally worth it. I ran on the North Shore of Pittsburgh past Heinz Field, PNC Park and the new Rivers Casino. I also crossed each of the three rivers in Pittsburgh and raced through the South Side before crossing the Smithfield Street Bridge and continued back through the streets of downtown Pittsburgh to the finish line near the Convention Center. Pittsburgh is known as the 'City of Bridges' and I ran over 5 of them. It was so cool! I felt great at the finish line too. And I feel really good today, besides my thighs feel like I did 1,000 lunges yesterday. ha. those darn hills! I finished the race in 2 hours and 23 minutes. I am really happy with my time, those darn hills slowed me down, but I still feel like I did a really great job. Out of the 16,000 runners, there were 5,000 Marathoners and then obviously let's do the math together...11,000 half marathoners. Out of 11,000 runners I placed 4,700th. I think that rocks! And I think I will totally do this race again before we move from Columbus and hopefully, now that I know there are some killer inclines, I will be more prepared and can do even better. But really, without a doubt, the greatest part of the race was coming through the finish line and finding Tyson and Brody waiting for me all proud and happy for me. It warms my heart and soul. I love that they supported me through all my training and then came to cheer me on. I am very loved!

And of course without further a'do...here are pictures from my race and our quick weekend trip in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania...

I did it! My very First Half Marathon. I was so happy and soaking wet and when I mean wet, when we got back to the hotel room I had to wring out my clothes in the tub they were so water logged from the rain and I am sure sweat too. lovely, huh?

My biggest fans! Love them!

showing off my metal and my "personalized" bib with my name on it. That's right I signed up early enough for this race...all the way back to the first week in November of last year, that I got to have a "personalized" bib. let's ohhhhh....aweeeeee. I know. the early bird gets the worm people. I just happened to get lucky.

after I stretched for a bit and ate a quick treat (which consisted of a bagel, gatorade, a banana and a smiley face sugar cookie...which you totally wanted to know that, didn't you?), we headed into the Health and Fitness Expo at the convention center to go buy a couple of t-shirts. We hit up the Nike booth and we saw that they had this huge wall put up with all the runners names on it.

don't you worry...I found my name.

Seriously my race was the bomb. I keep reliving it in my mind, and it was wonderful! HOORAY!

Okay enough about my race... did you know that Pittsburgh is only 3 hours from Columbus. It was just like a little hop, skip and jump and viola we were there. We left Friday afternoon after Tyson's class and got there around 4ish. We checked into our hotel room and then headed down to the Health and Fitness Expo to go pick up my runners packet, race shirt and bib #. When we got to the convention center we were greeted with this...

before I could get my packet, I had to look up my bib # on a computer that they had set up or look on the honker huge board they had of all 16,000 runners names and bib #'s...but don't you worry...

because that's right...i found myself. and you want to know the coolest part...well i think it's pretty cool...I was the ONLY Crowther. halla! The one and only! just sayin.

by the time we were done getting my stuff and checking out the expo, the little brody bear was ready for a nap, so he snoozed in the car while we drove around and checked out Pittsburgh. It's a lot like Columbus besides it's super hilly. have i mentioned that yet? yup, it's got HILLS lots of them! ha. It's a really pretty city and the surrounding area neighborhoods are really pretty too. The rest of friday night consisted of shopping at Target and hanging out in the hotel room...

here are two cute pics of Brody. Showing off his mad balancing skills and then hanging out on the bed after his bath (which by the way I brought Colorox Bleach tub cleaner with me and cleaned the tub nice and clean before putting him in the hotel tub. germs gross me out. if you ever take a bath in a hotel tub, don't ever tell me. that's just sick. ha.) anywhos... brody is cute. end of story.

Saturday morning we got up and headed down to the "Strip District", where there is a way fun farmers market. It was kinda like Pikes Market in Seattle meets Canal Street in NYC. It was super fun. We loved it.

things got even more fun when we went and ate breakfast at Pamela's in the "Strip District"...thanks to my friend Carlee for telling us to go and eat there. It was SO GOOD! it was a TRIPLE YUM!

after walking all around and checking things out and eating the little bear was ready to crash and crash he did. he decided to sleep for 3.5 hours. so I napped too. lovely. By the time he woke up it was almost 4. So we got Brody fed and we were ready to take off and see some more of Pittsburgh.

Our first stop was up to Mt. Washington where they have a way old, still working cable car that will take you up and down the mountain. It's called the "Incline". The view from the top is AMAZING giving you a fantastic view of all of Pittsburgh and of all the Bridges that connect to the city. I don't even know how many Bridges there are. But there are a ton. It was seriously a beautiful view and the weather was great too! and don't mind brody's face in the our family shot, he thought the people taking our photo were weird. ha. he really was happy.

after the "Incline" we drove across town over to supposably one of the "best" ice cream places in Pittsburgh. So said the internet. and this ice cream place just happened to be next to the University of Pittsburgh. by the way...the campus is beautiful! and the ice cream was TASTY! The ice cream place was called 'Dave and Andy's'. And it really was good. We LOVE ice cream and it was a two thumbs up for us. Pretty sure Brody agreed as well. He was digging the cookies and cream.

after ice cream, we knew Brody was ready to PLAY! So we conveniently found a park next to campus called Schenley Park. It was perfect and had a super rad play ground that Brody LOVED! He was so happy! Isn't he just the cutest kid ever! I just want to gobbled him up. LOVE LOVE LOVE HIM!!!

um, what's that you say? Brody is riding on his car? You betcha he is! Like we'd leave home without it? We toodled all around the park on some fun paths and he just soaked it all up. He was so giddy. The best part of riding his car, we pulled him around the hotel, down the hallways, in the elevator, people thought it was great. He's such a cutie!!!

After the park we headed back to our Hotel and ordered in dinner.... my PRE-RACE DINNER. Out of anything I could choose for my "PRE-RACE" meal...where do you think I got it from? If you get this right, you should give yourself a big high-five! Of course out of anything, I choose the Cheesecake Factory. And I got the oh so tasty Carmel Chicken (so good, thanks Jamie!) and Tyson got the Orange Chicken. in case you were wondering. Anywhos, it was fabulous!

and what's even more fun after eating a tasty meal...the POOL of course! Brody is a little fish. Perhaps even a fish bear. whatev. we all know I like to use animals for names. just deal with it. We had a great time playing in the pool and the best part, we had the whole pool to ourselves. that was nice. Brody loved it!

and well...after the pool it was bath time and then bed time. And then I woke up Sunday morning...and well you can scroll back up to the top if you forgot what happened.

And that concludes our trip to Pittsburgh. It was so much fun and super quick. We didn't even do everything on our "to-do" list, so I am sure we will go back again. Pittsburgh was really fun. Thanks to friends for all the fun suggestions on things to do. We had a great time.

After the race, we headed back to the hotel room and packed everything up and we headed back home to Columbus...