I conquered 13.1

Yes, I am well aware I said I would never run a half marathon. We have all had things we said we would never do and did them anyway. I conquered 13.1 miles and I feel pretty damn good about it. Will I ever do a half marathon again? Not in your dreams!

I would say my training was okay at best. This was not lack of drive, it was lack of time. John and I decided in January that we would sign up. We had roughly 16 weeks to prepare. Training started out great. I was following my plan and felt good. About a month before the race I got a new job and the boys started baseball. This combination sucked up my time. So unfortunately my training fell to about one day a week. Sometimes two days if I got lucky.

I started to get really down the week before. The weather was suppose to be rainy and freezing. I just was not in good spirits about it at all. I was completely dreading it. There was not one part of me that wanted to do this race. The only thing keeping me from quitting was knowing there was no way I could let John down.

Friday evening the weather forecast started to change! Thank the good Lord Baby Jesus. This gave me a glimmer of hope. If the weather cooperated I could totally do this race. John and I got everything ready for the next morning. I went to bed feeling very anxious. Could I actually do this?

We got up at 5:00AM ready to rock. From the forecast it looked like we would be getting a little wet but nothing crazy. Yes! We got ready and ate our breakfast. Our neighbor, Josh, was running it with us. He popped over at 5:45 and it was time to head downtown. Talk about nerves. I was nauseous the whole drive.

Race day excitement is indescribable. You have to experience it for yourself to truly understand the high. It definitely was kicking in full force as we made our way to the JW. We had plenty of time to get stretched out and ready. We went down and did a few laps down the street to warm up. Then it was finally time to line up.

And we’re off. I felt completely amazing for the first 6 miles. Shit! I just may be able to do this. The weather was little wet but it was not bad at all. Then we got to the track. Everyone says the 3 miles you are on the track are the worst and they were not joking. It’s tough to run on. It was cool to “kiss the bricks” but from there things went downhill quick. I started cramping up and really struggling.

The last 3 miles were horrible. I walked a lot. My knee kept giving out about every half mile. I was in pain. I was feeling defeated. I didn’t know how I would finish. We hit the last half mile and I could finally feel the finish line approaching. The crowd brought me back into it. Push through the pain. Then finally I crossed that line signaling it was over. Pure exhilaration! Of course coupled with exhaustion!

It felt amazing to accomplish this huge feat. I could never have done it without John. He stayed with me the entire time. He could have easily left me. This wasn’t his first rodeo and he was able to train much better than me. But he didn’t he continued to encourage me even when I didn’t deserve it. So thanks Stinky! I truly could not have finished without you by my side!

So I am super happy that I did this race. I have no desire to ever run a race that far again but it feels great to check it off the ol bucket list!