It has stopped raining! Feeling great!
Miles 5 and 6 I was chatting with a woman who was doing her first half marathon. She told me she'd had a habit of not finishing things in her life and she was hoping that today would be a turning point for her. She wanted her husband and her son to be proud of her. She had brought along her friend who walked about a block ahead of her and acted as her de facto cheerleader. I told her to visualize the finisher medal around her neck; that that always motivated me. She was worried that they wouldn't have a finisher medal for her since she expected she'd cross the finish line after the race had officially "closed". I reassured her that I was a veteran of crossing closed finish lines and that they would indeed have a medal for her.
I lost track of her shortly before Mile 7. But I saw her friend at the finish line and she told me that unfortunately, she had to stop at Mile 12.
Blog posted here.