My first half marathon

This post is going to be more than you ever wanted to know about my first half marathon. 

Saturday August 20th, 2011 I ran my first half marathon.  I trained hard for it and three weeks before the race we went to run the race course.  For some reason during that long run I started having a spasm in my gluteus medius muscle.  So, I spent the last three weeks cycling instead of running and going to lots of physical therapy in hopes that I could still run.  Wednesday I decided to get a cortisone shot to make sure I could still run the race.  I was REALLY nervous before the race because I hadn’t been able to run for a few weeks.  Thankfully that muscle felt great during the race.  The beginning of the race I felt great and kept a pretty good pace for me.  The few hills in the last half of the race felt nearly insurmountable, but I made it.  By mile 10 I was having a REALLY hard time and hoping that I could finish without walking since that was my goal.  Miraculously that’s about when my awesome sister in law, Heather showed up to run the last few miles with me.  I can’t tell you what a relief that was for me.  Not because it made it easier, but because she helped me push through and not give up.  She’s the best!  My little (but not so little) Jason met up with us for the last two miles and he was a great motivator too.  Here’s the three of us right before they left to go over to the finish line for when I ran through since they couldn’t go through.  This is right after I went through the finish line.  At this point I was REALLY close to passing out—at least that’s how it felt.  I was COMPLETELY exhausted and couldn’t even walk straight.  I went to get some water and the guy there asked me if I was ok because I literally was walking like a drunk person.  I sat down for a minute and drank some water and then got some food.  After that I was a little less woozy, but honestly didn’t feel great for a little while.  Jason and all the kids were there to cheer me on and take pictures.  I told them to go ahead and take off because I wanted to wait for Bonnie and Tami to finish.  I was REALLY happy with my finish time of 2:04.  I slowed down so much at the end I was worried it would be much longer than that.  It’s not a fabulous time if I compare it too much with the winners or all the hundreds of people that finished before me (seriously-- I finished 613 overall and 111 in my age category), but I’m proud that I did it and happy that I made my goal  of keeping under a 10 min pace average even after not being able to train for a few weeks before the race.  Today I hurt more that I can remember hurting in a VERY long time—I feel like I’ve been hit by a BIG truck.  I had to say the closing prayer in church today and I thought I did a pretty good job of not limping too much walking to the front, but MANY people asked me about it later so I guess didn’t do a good job hiding it.  Here’s hoping tomorrow isn’t quite so sore.  Now for a few more pictures of the fun. 

Tami in the home stretchBonnie proud to be at the finish line.

  Tami’s right behind her!This is what I wanted to do when I got done, but I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get back up.  I made them stand up to take a picture together—I’m mean like that.  We worked hard all summer for this!  Way to go girlfriends!  You guys are the best!  Thanks for joining me in this crazy adventure.  Lets do it again!