1:10:41

BAM! That is five minutes under our goal time and a good twenty-plus minutes less than we did it in last year.

Here is us at the starting line, looking all happy and not-sweaty.

And here is us at the finish line, looking FUCKING TRIUMPHANT and also tired (and more than a little bit red in the face, I've just noticed) because we smashed it!

We had a lovely team dinner last night with lots of delicious carbs.

I woke up at RIDICULOUS o'clock this morning, so that I would have enough time to eat breakfast and wake myself up - having established that I am So Not A Morning Running Person. Facebook informed me that this awesome lady had finished this super-tough race, which totally got me in the pre-race mood and excited to kick arse.

We finally got to the starting line, where I tried not to think about that time a couple of years ago (when I was just doing it for fun) when my timer didn't register. And we were off! We pushed it out hard at the start, it was hard not to get caught up in the crowd and the excitement, and we have always gone hard for the first two ks.

But guess what? We went hard for almost ALL the ks! My running buddy and I were just looking at each other after every split-time update from my App Lady like, We are so awesome. We're going so fast. We're smashing it! It was so fun and I was just totally happy and really relaxed for the first nine ks or so. After that I really wanted to stop and have a nap, but Running Buddy wouldn't let me so we kept going.

We had our own personal cheer squad for one part of it, and I cannot overstate how awesome it made me feel, to have people cheering for me, and telling me that I could do it. Awesome.

I tried to push it out in the last k, but between being tired and having to dodge a ton of people near the finish line, I was never full-out sprinting (or as close as I get after 12ks) but I ran hard for longer than I usually sprint, so I am happy with that.

And then we stopped, and did I mention we are awesome? I really think we are. From struggling to run five minutes at a time to running twelve kilometers and (mostly) enjoying it - that is cool.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us, with donations or otherwise. You guys rock.

We raised over $600 for the Little Heroes Foundation - and it's not too late to donate.