Wow! What a great weekend! As I have mentioned on here before, I decided in December to run the half marathon. I started training in January. I literally started with 2 miles and worked my way up to about 8. (I was supposed to go up to 10 but never made it.) The big day was Saturday. We were blessed with the most perfect weather. In the midst of all the horrible storms, Saturday dawned cool and sunny. Start time temp was around 59 degrees. No humidity. Perfect running weather.
I had very low expectations for myself and was just hoping to have fun and finish. My friend Melissa is the perfect running partner for me. We both run fairly slow, but she is a strong runner and keeps me going. I was hoping to finish around 2 hr 45 min. and we finished at 2 hr 49 min. So, not bad for my first time.
I really felt great until right after mile 11. Then both my hips started hurting and pain was shooting down from my hips to my upper legs. I was pretty much in pain until the finish line. I didn't want to stop for too long because I knew I would never get started back again. We walked a little bit and Melissa just kept me going, pointing out the mile 12 sign, then the mile 13 sign, then we rounded our last corner and saw the finish line! We were both in tears at that point. Relief, happiness, and a huge sense of pride in what we had just accomplished. At one point we were running next to a woman pushing her husband in a wheelchair. That kind of put things in perspective for me.
So, overall, my first half marathon experience was pretty close to perfect. Being a part of something with 31.000 others is simply amazing. Seeing the thousands of people that come out just to cheer on the runners and walkers is also amazing. What a sight to behold! People lining street after street with parties spilling out their front doors onto their front lawns, holding signs, bands playing music, cheering, yelling, and slapping high fives to everyone that runs by! One of the best experiences of my life! I am now one of those annoying people who tries to persuade everyone I talk to that they too need to do a half marathon. It's like when you have done something so great, you want others to experience it too. Doesn't matter how old, or what size you are or what shape you are in, you could do it! It's worth it! You are worth it!
So, how do I feel today, you ask? Well, 4 ibuprofen and 9 straight hours of sleep last night, and I feel great! Ready to do it all again next year! Let me know if you want to join me!
Melissa and I waiting to start. We were in corral 26 so we had a while to wait.
Here I am at mile 8. I was still feeling good here. John Will, his parents, and my boys were all waiting for me! So great to see them! See Ryan's cute little face there in the background? Best part of the race is when we would see people we knew cheering for us!
Here we are coming up on maybe mile 9. You can see it is a slight hill so I look like I might have been walking. My parents were waiting for us at the corner and my Dad took this shot. My parents had to get up early and drive about 30 minutes into town to see the race. I was thrilled to see them!
A friend standing at mile 11 took this shot of me as I was coming up. I had no idea she was going to be there so I was really surprised to see her. So fun! Again, one of the best parts of the race!
Will ran in the Kids Marathon downtown at LP Field on Friday night. That was also a lot of fun! All the kids from his school had matching t-shirts. They did great. Fun to see so many kids and parents out running.
