Half-Marathon: You can run, but you can't hide!

A year ago I believe that I told my sister Sara, I am perfectly happy to do 5Ks.  Maybe someday I'll do a 10K, but there is absolutely no desire in me to do a marathon or even a half-marathon."  Then I met this great girl, Lisa, who started running a little over a year ago and after her and my other friend Scott both ran half and whole marathons, I was inspired.  They were so amazing and I thought, "I want to do that, and if they could do it and they just started running, then surely I could do it, too, right?'  So 9 weeks ago I went to Runnersworld.com and entered in all the information.  It gave me a training schedule that was 9 weeks long and my training for a half-marathon officially began.  The longest it had me running before the race was 7 miles.  I was more than a little intimidated that it wasn't closer to the actual 13.1 mile distance, but I just trusted in my schedule that if it said I could do it then I could. 

The whole week leading up to the half-marathon I was nervous. The two days before the race all I could think about was the race.  It was constantly on my mind; I was that nervous.  I was anxious, nervous, excited, and down-right scared.  Lisa decided to also run the race and I'm so glad she did!  She had a goal to do it in under 2 hours and she did it!  She had all kinds of little tips and encouragement and I'm just not sure I could have done it without her support.

The night before the race I ate pizza for supper and was asleep by 11:30 (that's WAY early for me!).  I got up at 7:30 and met Lisa at the race about 25 minutes before the start.  My goal was to finish.  There weren't a whole lot of people (less than 200).  The weather was PERFECT; could not have asked for better weather.  The first 7 miles were much better than I thought they would be.  I was jogging at a good clip.  Right after the 8 mile marker, was "the hill" at Furman.  I've run  up this hill many times.  I told Lisa, "The hill and I are friends, but we don't like each other."  It zaps me evertime so the rest of the race was pretty torturous.  Down right brutal.  I wanted to quit so badly, but I just kept hearing Jillian (from Biggest Loser) screaming at me that I wasn't going to die and I could do it and quitting was not an option.  And so I pushed on.  Those  4 miles were the worst.  Right at the start of the last mile, I looked up and there was Scott.  What a surprise!  He ran the last mile with me and was full of encouraging words just when I needed them the most.  He ran ahead at the end so he could cheer me on with Lisa and his wife Jenna and their kids.  What great supports and friends to come and cheer Lisa and I on.  I'm so glad to have them for friends!

I finished the race in 2:35:10.  Amazingly, 16 people finished after me.  I really thought I was closer to last than that.  Never before have I experience such immediate pain!  I literally hobbled to the car and hobbled around the rest of that day and the next.  I treated myself to a pedicure that night, but how I wish I had scheduled a massage!  I'm still not up to a marathon and kudos to Lisa and Scott for their marathons.  At the time I also said I would never run a half marathon again, either.  However...at the coaxing of Lisa, less than a week later I registered for the half-marathon in DC.  It should be flatter, I'm going to lose weight before then, and I have a little longer to train.  Plus I have the knowledge that I did once, so I can do it again.  And I haven't been to DC since 1995 when Tisha and Roger got married (and we didn't really do any sight seeing then), so I'm super excited!

This is how I really felt the morning before I left for the race...

Lisa and I before the race.

Waiting to start.  If you look closely you can see us in the back.  At least you can see Lisa's pink jacket.  

Still waiting to start.  That is my friend Eric in the black.  He finished 10th overall.  Back in 8th and 9th grade he used to try and talke me into running and I adamently refused and always told him that walking was better.  Insert foot in mouth...

Starting off.  There were about 180 runners...a relatively small race.  That's me in the black pants and yellow shirt.  The weather may not look like it, but it was PERFECT for running!

Lisa coming to the finish line.  She finished in 1:58:48, meeting her goal to finish in under 2 hours.  Way to go, Lisa!

Approaching the finish line and trying to look like I'm not dying.

Yay!  We did it!