Half Marathon- WE DID IT!

I am very late blogging about this. Life has been pretty busy!

We completed our first Half Marathon almost 2 weeks ago now.  I still can't believe I completed it!  It was iffy if I was even going to run it. The Thursday before I went home from work sick and took my first sick day in years- I had a high fever body aches and GI upset.  I have no idea what I got into. I even went to the doctor the next morning because I almost passed out that morning after walking down the stairs.  After staying off my feet all day Friday and drinking lots of fluids I was back to 70% that night packing up the UHAUL. I told myself that if I could pack up the UHAUL I could run the next day.  I was determined to try since I had trained for this for 6 months now!!

The next morning I felt a bit light headed but I think it was from nerves. We made it to the start line at 6am and had about an hour to wait and eat some breakfast.  We caught up with Adele and Jen and were able to catch up before we started running. For those of you that don't know me I have a nervous bladder so I peed 4 times that morning. The first couple times the line was really short but then I went 20 min before the race was starting and gosh there were probably 50 people in front of me.  I was 2 people away when they let the first people go (wheelchairs get a head start).  Man I have never seen people run and pee so fast so I got to actually go before we started the race (thank goodness).  I got back to the group right as they were counting down and we were off!

Right after the finish line! 

The first mile was downhill and really easy pace- I was overwhelmed with emotion running because I kept thinking- OMG I'm really doing this- I'm really accomplishing this goal!!!  After that I settled into my slow and steady pace. It was well under what Danielle and Justin were comfortable running but they were very supportive and stayed with me.

It was an out and back race which was cool because about mile 4 people started coming back the other way on our first out and back leg.  It really kept me distracted which makes the miles go by faster. Justin started having knee problems about mile 7 but I was running so slowly that he could take walk breaks and then catch back up.

I ran straight through until mile 11 then took a quick break -decieded that walking hurt worse than running and kept going. Remember when I said the first mile was downhill- well that means the last mile is uphill STRAIGHT uphill.  But we got through and picked up the pace as we saw the finish line. What a cool experience!! Jen and Adele even waited even though they finished right over and right under 2 hours (we finished right under 2 hrs 45 min.

I will definitely do one again but I have taken a week off from running and am excited to get back into it just waiting on this heat wave to pass :)

Shout out to my coach and friend Danielle- I would have never/could have never/ wouldn't have finished without her!  She is the one that got me following a training plan and met me at 6am even if she didn't sleep at all the night before to run. Thanks so much for your support, drive, and love over the last 6 months! Thanks for running by my side through the whole thing!