Sole Searching and the Pursuit of Medals

Mother Daughter trip to Missoula A new state for both of us! Beautiful view from our hotel room Such a beautiful place! Warm welcome from the Holiday Inn Missoula Exploring Checking out the farmer's market Saturday there was a wonderful farmer's market in Caras Park right outside our hotel. The Expo and packet pick up were there as well, with a lot of vendors and some merchandise from previous years. I got the softest hoodie that I've worn almost every day since. There was a very nice active walking/biking path along the Fort Clark river. My first pre-race dinner meet up with the 50 States Half Marathon Club We went out to dinner at The Montana Club restaurant to celebrate with Laura Lindsey. It was a big group, and a really nice way to get to know other club members. Laura finished her 50 State Half Marathon Club challenge the following day with the Missoula Half Marathon.  State-shaped bib is fun! My first official pre-race photo with the 50 States Half Marathon Club crew...

I always appreciate free race photos! I just returned from a quick weekend getaway to Maryland for the Maryland Half Marathon in Fulton, Maryland. It was about a four-hour drive for me from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I ran into some bad weather/traffic though, and the drive down took me six hours! I almost turned around, but I am glad I kept going because I had a very nice experience at this race. I stayed at Homewood Suites by Hilton in Columbia, which was about five minutes from the start. It was convenient and nice enough, I only ended up spending seven hours there in total, six of which I was asleep! This was a smaller race, packet pick up in the morning, it was based in a small community shopping area. I got to hang out in my car, which was nice because it was drizzling. This was my first experience running with a pace group. I really enjoyed that they had a Galloway pacing team! I met Floyd and Marilyn who were pacing the 3:30 group using 15:30 intervals. It felt really sustainabl...