Luxembourg Half Marathon

Me and my new do rag!!

Friday Morning, Missy and I left for Luxembourg. The train took about two hours and we arrived around noon. We went to our hostel to check in, but they told us that we wouldn't be able to until 1. We decided to head to the race expo to pick up our bibs and such to kill time. When we got there at 12:30, they told us that the expo doesn't start until 2 and that we'd have to come back then... we were bummed because we had nowhere else to go! We decided to walk to a nearby food court and get lunch to kill some time- Missy had McDonald's and I had Subway. After an hour and a half of waiting at McDonald's we went back to the expo hall and got our bibs. We were also handed a cinch sack filled with all sorts of goodies, including a do rag. We were excited, to say the least.

Delicious Pasta

We then checked in to our hostel, put our stuff in our room, then trekked to the city center to check out the happenings of Luxembourg. There wasn't a whole lot to do there and most of the stores were closed by the time we got there, so we just walked around. Missy spotted a ChiChis (yes, the Mexican franchise that was the cause of the largest Hepatitis A outbreak in US history), which was her favorite restaurant before they closed, and she was ecstatic. We would've eaten there for dinner, but a pasta party was included in our race registration fee, so we stuck true to our inner poor college students and vowed to stick with the pasta dinner and return to ChiChis for lunch the next day. We headed to the pasta "party", which was a sorry excuse for a party, but the lack of bumpin' music was made up for by the scrumptious pasta. We decided it would be best to head back to the hostel early to chill out and get a good night's sleep. As we walked down our hallway, we heard some serious snoring coming from one of the rooms and said "that sucks for whoever has to sleep in there!" As luck would have it, the snoring was coming from our room. We were staying in a six-bed dorm and two of the women sharing our room snored louder than I thought humanly possible. Of course, their snores were perfectly synchronized so that when one breathed in, the other breathed out, creating an endless cycle of noise that was comparable to a jackhammer. I took an Advil PM hoping that it would knock me out, but not even that helped. Missy and I didn't fall asleep until 5am when the women packed up and left, but we had to get back up at 7am to eat the breakfast included with our room.

Balloons released at the gun fire

We had breakfast and went back to bed, hoping to get a decent nap in before the race. We woke back up around noon feeling so much better and ready to run. Our friend Chris came from Paris that morning to spend the day with us and cheer us on at the race, so we met up with him at ChiChis. I had a pork quesadilla, being sure to load up on protein before my 13.1 mile run. The lunch was fantastic and Missy was happier than ever to once again be eating at her favorite restaurant. We walked around the city center for a little bit after that, then headed back to the hostel to get our running gear on. I bought some stars and stripes leggings a few months ago so that I could rep my motherland while running, and I was so excited to finally be able to wear them. We got dressed then headed down to the race! We were both pretty nervous, but once we arrived, the energy near the start line wiped our worries away. There was music blasting, runners decked out in all types of gear, and tons of cheerleaders with signs aplenty. When the gun went off to signal the beginning of the race, hundreds and hundreds of balloons were released- it looked awesome!

Just before the start!

The race started at 7pm and went all throughout the city. Except for a 20 minute downpour, the weather was perfect. The route was fairly flat, which Missy and I were both very happy about. About every 2-3 miles, there were water/Gatorade stations that also handed out banana and orange slices for fuel. While, in theory, this is a good idea, the person behind it didn't think very thoroughly. The fruit was sliced up but unpeeled, resulting in mass amounts of orange and banana peels on wet pavement. Nobody near me wiped out, but I definitely slipped a few times. After a few hours, I finally made it to the finish. It was dark out, so the path to the finish line was lit by candles- it looked so awesome! I mustered up what little energy I had left and ran through the finish, making it in a little over three hours. I realize that most people could do it in about 2.5, but I'm a horrible runner. On top of that, I pulled my hip flexor muscle a couple of weeks ago and haven't run since, so I was just aiming to finish rather than make a  time! After the finish line, there was a buffet of fruits, power bars, Gatorade, and beer. I don't know who in their right mind would want a beer after running a half or full marathon, but more power to those that did. Missy, Chris, and I met up and got a taxi back to the hostel. We were craving pizza, so we asked the guy at the front desk if any local pizza places delivered. He was so rude to us and said "No. You're not in America anymore, okay? There's a McDonald's in the center of town and guess what, it isn't 24 hours, so you better get hiking if you want to make it there before it closes". Someone was harboring some serious animosity towards America...

We showered, got in our PJs, and watched TV until the 13.1 miles caught up with us and then crashed for the night. Luckily, our new roommates weren't snorers, so we got an incredibly rejuvenating night of sleep before heading back to Paris Sunday morning :)

 Affectueusement,

Katie

I finished!!