Montana - Part 2

Montana Part 2 shall consist of pictures from the Missoula Half Marathon.

Mike graciously 'volunteered' to get up super early (somewhere around the time of 4:45ish if I remember correctly) and drive us to the start line....and then quickly learn his way around the course to find the perfect places to snap some in action photos.

This was us right before we got in the formation at the start line. The sun was just starting to come up and it was just beautiful. And you might notice that we're in North Face jackets...Nat gave me one as a gift and they were perfect since it was chilly that morning.

After reading about 1000 blogs on review of half marathons and marathons, I decided that I wanted to be one of those people who run with a camera. So I bought an ifitness belt and stored lots of goodies in it for the race. I got the double pouch belt so i put the camera in one pouch and some sharkies and a gu in the other.


This was my first attempt at taking pictures while running. Nat is a little blurry but you can see by the smile on my face I was having the time of my life. It was such an amazing feeling to set a goal with your best friend and then 7 months later...after training separately on opposite sides of the country to be in the moment and realizing...I'M RUNNING A HALF MARATHON! I don't think I'll ever forget that feeling from that morning.


This was one of the many shots that Mike captured during our race. After the race Mike told me he could always spot us because my hair was swinging from side to side....I guess you can see what he was talking about in this picture.




This picture was around mile 9 or 10....we were starting to get tired and put in our ear phones to pump us up and keep us moving.

The finish line was amazing! There were people everywhere, cheering and clapping. And as you were approaching the finish line they were announcing your name. At the very end Nat and I kicked it up a notch and ended up finishing strong. Mike, Josh and Madalyn greeted us at the finish line with huge smiles. It was perfect.

Our official time was 2:52:14...and I'm proud of that. We really just wanted to finish and to say that we'd finished it in under 3 hours. We definitely left some room for improvement for the next one.

I can officially mark the half marathon off my bucket list! :)