There are some people in this world that are always mature and stable. You know them – the calm, collected, rational type of people.

I am not one of those people.

At my best, I’m like 80% mature and 60% stable. I need you to understand this because I was not at the best when one of my closest friends, Elyana (you might remember her from Half Marathon #5), informed me that she wanted to run a half-marathon in North Carolina because she was thinking of moving there.

Me: ANDY. ELYANA WANTS TO MOVE TO NORTH CAROLINA. THIS CANNOT HAPPEN

Andy: Whhhaaaat?? Are you serious? That’s so lame.

Me: I KNOW. WE MUST STOP HER. SHE DOESN’T ACTUALLY WANT TO MOVE THERE.

Andy: Girl. Calm down – you got to let her do her thing

Me: I WILL NOT CALM DOWN. I WILL NOT LET HER DO HER THING.

…you get the point.

Anyways, even though I was hard-core panicking (lowering my stability percentage), I agreed to Elyana’s plan to do a half-marathon in North Carolina. We chose Raleigh as neither of us had been there before and it was still close enough to drive to. The truth is, I was kind-of not-so-secretly hoping that Elyana would hate it there and would change her mind about moving (you see how my maturity percentage gets low…I promise I’m only half a terrible person). The issue is that now that I’ve been to Raleigh, I’m all about moving there myself!

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The couple of weeks before we arrived in Raleigh were a total whirlwind. (And by whirlwind I mean so incredibly busy, its questionable on whether or not I slept at all).

On March 11th I got married.

On March 18th I took a train to NYC for work travel.

On March 24th I took a plane to from NYC Fort Lauderdale to meet Andy for a long weekend.

On March 27th I took a plan from Fort Lauderdale to Jacksonville, FL for work travel.

And fiiinnallllyyy on March 31st I took a plane to Raleigh, NC for this half marathon. As you might imagine, I was pretty exhausted and not quite in the best mood. Andy and Elyana picked me up at the Raleigh airport (they had driven down from DC) and at this point I was about to punch the evil airport cop on the Segway (trust me, this man was the MOST annoying). However, I started to get back into the groove of things once we stopped at Bojangles for some grub 🙂

One of the neat things about Raleigh is that Andy’s uncle, William, and cousin, Marie, live there. After Bojangles we drove to Uncle William’s house and took a tour of his place. Uncle William is a professor at NC State and one of his colleagues was having a retirement party that night at a local bar called Player’s Retreat. We were graciously invited to tag along, so the four of us picked up Marie and headed to the bar.

Now, you can call me naïve or just plain dumb, but I honestly didn’t realize that NC State was in the heart of Raleigh. We’re at this bar and seriously the campus is RIGHT THERE. It’s weird too because there are houses on one street and then you turn the corner and there is a campus building. The campus was super pretty and it was nice to get some glimpses.

After the happy hour all five of us went to a pizza place for dinner. It was incredibly busy, but worth the wait. 

While we were waiting I learned how to make the Wolf Pack sign (the NC State mascot). Let me tell you, that it is not as easy as you would think.

Try #1: This is apparently all wrong. My outside fingers are not straight up and my angle is wrong so it doesn’t even look like a wolf. 

Try #2: Better, but still not good enough. My middle fingers are not bent enough in order to make it look like the head of the wolf. 

Try #3: I was told it would pass muster, but it was still not great. I guess being an NC State fan is not in my future.

After dinner, Uncle William dropped me, Marie, Andy and Elyana at a bar downtown. The bar was called Boxcar and it’s basically like a Chuckie Cheese for adults, minus the plastic ball pen and add alcoholic beverages. We spent WAY too much time playing skee-ball. I was seriously impressed with how good everyone was! Someone in our group that was not me had a ridiculously high score of 17,000 or 18,000. I was more on that 12,000 range.

I wish that we all hadn’t been so tired because it seemed like a really fun place to hang out. By 11:30 I was beat. We all took an uber back to the AirBnb we were staying at and Marie met up with some of her friends at a nearby house party.

The next day, Saturday, was our last day before RACE DAY!!!! We headed over to the convention center to pick up our shirts and race packets. One of the nice things about Rock n Rall Half Marathons is that they always have a huge race convention/packet pick-up. I feel like I could have spent hours there. 

After picking up our race packets we headed to a popular brunch spot in downtown Raleigh that our AirBnb hosts had recommended to us. The place was called Beasley’s Chicken + Honey and we were told to get there right as it opens or 15 minutes before. They were seriously not kidding. The restaurant opened at 11:00, we got there at 11:02 and the place was already full. We were able to get the last three seats at the bar and 10 minutes later there was a line of at least 15 people outside. Raleigh doesn’t mess around with their brunch!

The food was a bit on the expensive side, but everything was quick and super delicious. Our mimosas had homemade orange juice (don’t judge us for drinking the day before our race…oops) and by the end of the meal I felt super satisfied. Also, the restaurant had a really nice ambiance too it. Trendy, but still maintained so many classic southern features. 

Once we had refueled we decided to go to Raleigh’s Museum of Natural Sciences. 

Disclaimer: Science is really not my thing. I don’t care about bugs or evolution or any of that nonsense. I wanted to go to the history museum and learn about the civil rights movement in North Carolina!! But, I was outvoted and so we went to the Science Museum instead. That being said, I don’t have any cool facts for you because I wasn’t really paying attention. I do have some cool pictures though!



After wandering through the museum for a couple of hours I was ready for a nap. However, when we went back to the AirBnb we decided to rally and instead of napping we headed out to the nearby arboretum (JC Raulston Arboretum). The JC Raulston Arboretum is a 10-acre plot of land/garden that is owned by NC State. On the afternoon that we arrived it turned out that they were doing a fundraiser for the Arboretum. At first we were bummed because instead of being free we had to pay to gain entrance ($10 per person too!). However, once we got inside they had a lot of neat things to do throughout the arboretum.
They had various games (i.e. Corn hole) and interactive activities (although, mostly aimed towards children). We spent a ton of time playing bocce ball. 

 Just walking around the arboretum was entertaining. The place was BEAUTIFUL. 

They also had some really artistic items – like this tree that had pieces of a mirror all on it. I’m still a little confused as to why a tree has mirror material on it, but I like mirrors so I just rolled with it.

It was a really great way to spend an afternoon and I highly recommend that anyone who visits Raleigh checks out this arboretum. 

That night, we walked downtown for the Rockin’ Raleigh Spaghetti Dinner. The spaghetti dinner was a fundraiser and was put on in conjunction with the half marathon. For $10 each we got a plate full of spaghetti & meatballs, salad and garlic bread. They had live music and had closed off the street so it was a semi block party. Everyone sat together on this long table in the middle of the street. I had never done this before a race and I thought it was a great! We had time to chat with other people that were running the race and listen to their stories. It also got us out of the house and eating a yummy, affordable meal before running the next morning. 

After eating we went back to the AirBnb and had an early night. This was my first time using an AirBnb and I really enjoyed it for numerous reasons.

1. One night at the hotels near the race cost the same as both nights at the AirBnb. 

2. The hotel required that we pay to park the car while the AirBnb we could park for free. 

3. We had our own bedrooms and own bathroom at the AirBnb. 

4. The AirBnb was within walking distance (a 10-15 minute walk) of the entire downtown area, including where the race started/finished. 

5. We had access to a kitchen at the AirBnb. Although we didn’t use the kitchen, we definitely took advantage of the fridge! 

6. We had a later check out so we were able to come back to the AirBnb after the race and shower before heading out. Aka…I’m totally all for AirBnbs now.

On another note…our hosts were ideal. And when I say ideal I really mean that they’re the ideal adult couple that Andy and I wish we could be. On Saturday, while we were brunching and lounging around they went to the gym (have a I mentioned how incredibly in shape they were?). When they returned he started doing their house project of renovating their bathroom and she started weeding the garden outside. WHO IS THAT PRODUCTIVE ON A SATURDAY?!?! Saturdays are for sleeping, drinking, and chilling. Saturdays are not for hard work. Unless you’re the Raleigh Power Couple and then we all just dream of being you. 

Anyways, the next morning, Elyana, Andy and I woke up at the crack of dawn to walk downtown for the race. I wasn’t nervous, but I absolutely did not feel prepared. As we walked to the race start we all slowly began to freeze. The sun hadn’t risen yet and it was WINDY. When we got closer we noticed a ton of people standing by a wall down the street from the start.  Once we turned the corner, we completely understood why. The wind was actually pushing us backwards. We immediately joined hundreds of other people standing around in the local Panera – the only building actually open that early on a Sunday. 

Eventually, we headed out to take our position in line. After my last race in Las Vegas, it felt like the Raleigh Half Marathon was TINY!! Of course, there was still 7-8 thousand people, but compared to the 50,000 in Vegas it didn’t seem large at all. As with other races, Elyana immediately went to the front of the race corral…being that she is speedy McSpeedster over here. Andy and I stood in the back 25% and really, we were okay with that. Ironically, Andy and I were hardcore matching during the race. Since it was colder than expected, we both were wearing our only sweatshirts…which happened to be JMU. But since you always know I’m down to represent JMU, I wasn’t against it at all. 🙂 

When doing this race, Andy and I had one goal: to finish. We took our time during running and we were not in a rush. Since we have both done multiple half marathons before there wasn’t the mental question of whether or not we would make it. We knew we would make it. The real issue was that we just didn’t feel like doing it. Sigh.

The nice thing about racing with Andy is that we were in misery together. Andy was perfectly fine with stopping to get water when they had a water station. When I was moving at a snail’s pace up the hill, Andy was content to let me go my speed. And when I was complaining about the pain in my body, Andy would complain with me. He was, in a nutshell, the perfect running company.

About halfway through the race we found Andy’s cousin, Marie, cheering for us on the sidewalk! It was so incredibly cool to see her 🙂 Even though we only stopped for a couple of minutes, it gave you that nice boost that kept you going. (Unfortunately that boost only lasted about a mile longer, because I was still dying for the majority of the race haha.) 

Around mile 10 or 11, Andy and I ran into a man on the side of the street wearing JMU attire. When he saw us he starting screaming and cheering. It made me feel all warm on the inside knowing that the power of JMU can be felt even in North Carolina. Of course, around that part of the race the only thing I was really feeling was pain and an overwhelming desire to be done.

To say the race was hilly would be an understatement. It was so hilly, that when we were on a small hill it felt like we were on a flat road. By the end of the race my cardio and lungs were fine. However, my legs were on FIRE! My IT band was throbbing, my knees could barely hold me up and my butt was burning. 

With a half mile left to go in the race, I looked over and on the side of the road was Elyana! Not surprisingly, she finished about 45 minutes ahead of us and decided to wait until we arrived before heading back to the AirBnb. The crazy woman that she is, she actually ran next to us on the side of the road for the last half mile and talked the entire time. After I finish a race I can barely walk, and here she is running next to us (although I will point out that we were mostly jogging at this point). 

As you might guess….WE FINISHED THE RACE!!!! WE MADE IT!!! THERE IS A HAPPY ENDING TO THE STORY!!!! 

Crossing that finish line is a relief like you cannot imagine. You don’t feel good. No, good is not the word to use as pain is reverberating throughout your body. It is more like you feel thankful – thankful that the self-initiated torture is over. Or at least for now it is.

Seven down; Forty-three to go.  

P.S. Please have a chuckle over the names on our race tags. You’re welcome.