Happy Thursday! I’ve had a few days to recover post race, and I’m feeling pretty good!!

Our weekend in Branson was so much fun! We arrived after work on Friday night and checked into our condo at Holiday Hills. Luckily my parents own a timeshare so the lodging was free to us for the weekend!

This became Mac’s territory for the weekend. Past experiences have taught us that it’s better off if he just stays behind during momma’s races! He was a very well behaved little man for being in a new place. 🙂 Once we got him situated, we headed out to a late dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack on the Branson Landing.

We had pretty view by the water! And Nick was excited to get some food in his belly.

I won’t show you what I ate because I ordered the largest platter of fried food that I could find. Oops! It was quite a yummy splurge. I ate about half my food and took the rest home in a doggie bag. Mac may or may not have gotten a few bites of leftover fries and hush puppies!

Divas Race Expo

Saturday we woke up early to head to the race expo before a day of shopping! My favorite. 🙂

The expo was held at the Branson Convention Center right next to the Branson Landing. It was pretty quiet and only a few other runners were wandering around the different booths. I got my bling and bought a couple shirts that say ‘Run like a Diva’. I always feel the need to buy things at race expos! I can’t help myself!

I was definitely loving all my pink bling! After we left the expo, we headed out for shopping at the Tanger outlets mall and the Landing. My favorite spot at the outlets? The Coach store, or course!

This was my biggest splurge of the day! The clearance section was an additional 40% off though. I HAD to buy it!

Dinner that evening was spent at Garfield’s, a fun little restaurant on the Branson Landing. The menu had some pasta on it but nothing that wasn’t in a creamy, milk-laden sauce. So our sweet waitress had the chef prepare me some penne with marinara and chicken for the perfect pre-race carb load meal!

I was jealous of Nick’s meal. He got a giant burger and baked potato. Carbs, yes. But too much fat to help me out on race morning.

Cheesy grin!! After our yummy meal, we headed back to the condo no needed to get race ready and in bed ASAP!

Divas Half Marathon, Branson

Race morning was beautiful! The forecast was looking hot – ummmm 93 degrees – but to start the race, it was only 63 degrees and sunny. Perfect! We arrived early to get good parking and so I could use the porta potties 18 times before line up. 🙂 Just kidding! I used it 3 time in about 45 minutes. And I STILL had to pee a couple miles in. I have a nervous bladder!

Notice Nick is holding water and my Power bar gel. He is the absolute best to go to all these races with me! Without him I would be very alone. And I would have to use gear check! Yuck!

We said our goodbyes and Nick headed away from the pack of divas so he didn’t get trapped on the course. I tried to relax and enjoy the pumping music that had going for us! Then we sang the national anthem and something hilarious happened. The starting line lost power. Our big archway went from this…

To this…

Deflated! Haha! We all starting laughing hysterically and the officials had the power back on momentarily. A quick countdown and we were off!!

The first 2 miles wound through the Branson Landing and were nice and flat. Then the hill started. And when I say hill, I mean we climbed about 900-1000 feet over 5 miles. If you have ever been in Branson, you know it’s not flat!

After the 7 mile mark, we had hit the highest point on the course and started the descent. And down we went….. All the way back down to mile 12.5 where we hit the final hill from hell and I my run slowed to the run of a 150 year old turtle. But I did keep running. 🙂 I knew after the hilly miles that today wouldn’t be a PR. There was NO way. But I was ok with it. The hills and heat made me forget about my time and focus on running.

After we made it up the final hill and made it back to the Branson Landing for our big finish, the gal next to me looked at me and said ‘We can still make it under 2 hours if we push! now go!!’ I have no clue who that woman was, but I appreciate her more than she knows. We started racing through the finishing chute and all the way through the finish. Whew! I was flyin’ and dyin’!

I’m in green and the one in dark pink was the one I was ‘racing’. I won! But just by a hair!!

Woah I was sweaty!! Yuck!! I finished in 50th place overall and 4th in my age division with a time of 1:59:34. Not too shabby for heat and hills!

I was so happy to get my blinged out medal and tiara! It was the perfect ending to my day of diva running. 🙂 oh also, the handsome half-dressed firefighters that have out the medals were icing on the cake!

Haha it was so fun! Here are some shots of the race finish at the Branson Landing. (Provided by Run like a Diva!)

Overall, it was an awesome race experience. Will I do it again? I’m just not sure yet. The hills were really bad. I’m not sure I want to put myself through that again. If they bring the Divas to Springfield, I will definitely sign up!!

Well that’s the end of another long (and possibly annoying) race recap. I’ve been a busy racing lady this spring! One more Go Girl half marathon in Columbia, Mo over Memorial Day weekend and then I’m done for the spring. For now, anyways. 🙂

Have a great day!!