You may remember that last year I ran the Basel marathon. I’m not much of a racer; normally I just like to run long distances. The marathon was my way of officially marking that I had covered the distance of 26.2 miles, or 41k.
This year, I did not feel the need to prove to myself that I could run that distance, so I wasn’t planning on entering the race. Then a bunch of people at BFA decided to run the 1/6 marathon and 1/2 marathon, so I decided I would be a social racer and run with them on the half.
This crew arrived earlier in the morning to run a 7k, which is 1/6 of a marathon (except for Jenna on the left who arrived early to register for the 1/2)
Here is the half marathon group. From left to right: Me, Lizzy, Jenna, Emily, Lauren
Part of the fun of running this race was just running with friends. Emily, Lauren and I ran together for a good part of the race.
At the starting line, ready to get going
I enjoyed running around taking goofy pictures with Emily's camera. I think some of the other runners wondered why I was laughing so much.
We split up after a hill slowed part of the group down and gave another part a second wind.
Still together here - Lauren and I made a goofy face. Emily was in her zone and didn't realize I was taking a picture
Then Lauren and I ran together for the rest of the race. According to our official race times, we finished about 40 seconds apart, although I split off from her at 19 kilometers to sprint into the finish.
Emily came into the finish with a stylish heel-click, but I only caught the tail end of it on camera.
Coming in for landing
It was a hard race for all of us. We didn’t start until 11am, which meant we were running during the hottest part of a very hot, muggy day. But overall, it was good to run with friends.
