This morning I awoke early for a race, however, for the first time in 5 years it wasn’t a race I would be running myself. Today is the annual Monster Dash Half Marathon race. This was the first half-marathon that I ever ran after starting to run in 2010. I’ve done either the half, or the 5K, every year since. However, after surviving my 50K last week I decided that I really should just sit this one out. The entire morning was wet with a light rain falling the entire time, however I don’t think I would have cared about that, and in fact I tend to enjoy a nice rain run.

None of that meant that I didn’t have a reason to go down to the race! My good friend Michael was running the half this year as his first ever half-marathon. Michael was the guy who got me into running back in 2010, but he ended up not sticking to it, and instead watching me take up the mantle of crazy runner dude. This year he got back into running and worked himself up taking on the 13.1 today.

This morning my oldest son and I headed out and picked him and and got him to the start line and then proceeded to hang out downtown for a while until it was time to head to the finish line. It ended up being a fun morning wandering around with my kid and then cheering in a bunch of racers at the finish. I even got to see another friend of mine Pete after he set a new half-marathon PR time.

Soon enough we spotted my friend coming down the last bit of the course and cheered him into the finish. Once he finished we helped him to the car for him to recover from what was the hardest thing he’d done yet. I was happy to at least have played a small part in this year’s Monster Dash.