In the Long Run: a letter to my Best Friend on the eve of her first Half

NHB,

You're going to finish a half marathon! Congrats! No, I'm not psychic, but I have no trouble picturing you finishing. You have trained for this (not like 

Barney Stinson). 

 

• Barney: I can't move my legs. I've ridden the subway twice, end to end; I've seen where it turns around. Ted, you don't ever wanna see where the subway turns around.

A few things to think about before we go do this thing:

Math is your friend-

Since this is your first Half, it's an automatic PR! Congratulations on your fastest ever 13.1 miles! 

Want more math to make you feel awesome? Check out your mile times! It's highly likely you'll either go out too fast (and have a mile PR) or have lots of adrenaline at the end (and have a PR mile or less). And your chip times shows you how much faster you were than all those other people you finished before. And lastly, you ran exactly 13.1 miles farther than this guy:

You won't be last-

It is very unlikely you'll finish last. As there are around 10,000 people you have a .01% chance of finishing last.

And even if you do finish last, you'll be in the company of this badass:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-10-14/news/chi-chicago-marathon-latest-feat-for-last-finisher-20131014_1_finish-line-america-chicago-marathon-mats

He has MS and finished a MARATHON! We're only doing half that!

Looks don't matter-

Honestly, your race pics will probably be awful. You may get one amazing pic like these:

But it's way more likely they'll be terrible. And really, at least you won't be these guys:

And of course, infamous:

Yikes.

Anyway, have an amazing run, enjoy your race and most importantly, be proud of your accomplishment! I'm proud of you!

Jen