A beautiful, crisp fall day brought me to Leavenworth yet again to see if I could improve my time from last year's half marathon. I thrive on competition, but the best competition is usually with myself. My time of 2 hours 18 minutes from last years race was looming over me. I wanted to shave off 8 minutes and do it in 2 hours 10 minutes. I was so excited to spend the day with my friend Desiree. She has been my training partner as we've bundled our kids in strollers running 5 or 6 miles (sometimes only 2) and tried to prepare. She didn't think she'd do so great but she was amazing running it in 2 hours 20 minutes. And I made my goal coming in at 2:09:51. Yeah, I like to cut it close. I'm so glad I found this sport to help drive me forward.