Another twofer! I ran the Fargo Half Marathon on May 19th and miles 3-4 crossed over into Minnesota. So that counts, right? Right. (Changed at a later date to just count as North Dakota).

I picked my mom up in OKC and began the journey to the top of the United States. Now I don’t know how many of you have been to Fargo, ND but it is a long ass ways away. I stopped counting how many total hours of driving it was round trip once I surpassed 24.

Luckily along the way I got to meet some neat people. Like this guy:

He kindly invited me to make a mandatory donation to the state of Nebraska. Nebraska has 60 mph speed limits….whoops.

But after Nebraska comes South Dakota! Big fan of the speed limits there.

Although there is one thing I don’t like about South Dakota. The severe lack of Diet Dr Pepper. Apparently you have to pay an extra fee/tax to have it so most gas stations don’t. Luckily I had gotten some in Iowa although there I had to pay a $0.05 bottle fee. What the WHAT? But alas, I’ll pay pretty much any cost to get my fix.

We arrived in North Dakota on Friday afternoon and went to the expo to pick up our race packets.  On this run I decided to do something a little different. Coming off of Nebraska I knew there was something wrong with my foot and didn’t think I would be able to do anything special time wise. I got an email from the race about a week out that said if I signed up for the 5k the night before then I would get extra swag. Well that was a no brainer. Normally I try and rest my legs going into a race but this time decided not to worry about it. PLUS my mom was doing the 5k as well. The temperature was in the 50s but dropping quickly (that morning it had been in the 70s). The 5k started at 6:30pm and I was singularly motivated to get back inside as soon as possible. The cool thing about the Fargo races is that they ended inside the Fargodome.

Now previous to that day my PR in the 5k was 27:25 from June 2017. One of my goals for 2018 was to break 27 mins. Well, I surpassed what I thought I could do. I wasn’t checking my watch, just trying to get out of the cold and when I crossed the finish line in 24:41 I literally thought my watch had malfunctioned. I think my music also helped. The song Whatever It Takes by Imagine Dragons came on right as I was heading towards the finish line. Music is so powerful for me.

My first 5k was back on 11/19/16 and I ran it in 34:00. Almost 10 mins off of my time since I “became” a runner. I impressed myself.

Once my mom finished we went out to dinner at a local restaurant and then went back to the hotel to relax. The next morning was the half marathon. It had gotten colder and worse…windier.

My foot was hurting and I already felt like I had accomplished a success for this trip so decided to relax my pace and enjoy. It was a decent course with minimal hills. Good crowd support and GREAT candy. As a bonus some stranger made me a sign! (Well it’s actually probably for another Alicia but I took a pic because it was cool).

The wind got brutal. At one point I got bitch slapped by my own braids. (Weapons of mass destruction pictured below….and gotta give my mom mad props for the do, I don’t have the skill).

I finished in 2:16 so still not bad. And finishing inside was awesome. We were greeted with a sweet spinner medal and  pizza, bananas, chocolate milk, and cups of cookie dough!! Now, I’m a big fan of cookie dough. So much so that in the 5k I had worn a tshirt that said “My Love Language is Cookie Dough.” Clearly someone was listening! That is the best post race food I have seen so far.

They also gave us hoodies which I really liked. Normally you only get a T-shirt. It was a very nice expo. I don’t plan to head back to North Dakota any time soon but if I was in the area for some reason I would definitely run this race again.

After the race they sent us photos and I got one that I really like. I think it was taken around mile 12 and I was hurting . But I think my face, and the tension clearly in it, captures my determination and commitment to the distance. I’ve been told to respect the distance and even with this being my 12th half marathon, I still get intimated at the start line. It’s never easy, but it’s always fulfilling. I don’t stop when I’m tired, I stop when I’m done.

Next up is Georgia on Memorial Day. And the picture below perfectly sums up my motto regarding basically my entire left leg as I’m now having knee issues as well. I’ll probably take some time off after this race to heal up, but hopefully it’s nothing serious.