I have to start this one by saying I did a terrible job of taking photos. I was busy living in the moment or running. So not a lot of photo documentation, and what I did take photos of is kind of weird. Weird is cool though, right?

I picked a race in Charlotte as I have a cousin and aunt who live there and wanted to be able to see them during my visit. As much as I’ve traveled through the CLT airport, I’ve never stayed in the city before so it was my first time.

I traveled with my family and we arrived on Friday and took my son to see Godzilla. He’s a big fan of the King of Monsters. Afterwards I grabbed my race packet. I was impressed with the swag- a longsleeve shirt, beer glass, and koozie.

For dinner we ate at North Italia as I was craving pasta. It’s a chain, but I had never eaten there before, and everything was pretty tasty. Bolognese for the win.

The next morning was the race. I hadn’t run anything over 4 miles continuously in awhile, but I ended up feeling pretty good and got the half marathon done in 2:10. I was hoping for 2:09 but somehow this race both started and ended going uphill which wasn’t conducive to me running faster. Oh well. Overall though this is a race I would recommend. Good swag, good post race setup, and good communication. Although as runners would say- lots of rolling hills.

After I crossed the finish line I found out the kids (who ran in the 5 mile race) both got first in their age groups.

After the race we met my cousin and aunt for lunch at Hawker’s. It’s a nice, casual Asian spot that I enjoyed. It was great seeing them and made for a highlight of the trip. We concluded with a trip to Jeni’s ice cream which was so good! I had lemon bar ice cream. Again, no pictures, but I devoured it :).

After lunch we explored Charlotte. Below is all I really have photo wise…🤦🏼‍♀️

Overall, a nice trip and excited that my next race will get me to 40 states.

Next up- Rhode Island