Training for a half marathon doesn't only effect me. I've had a huge support group surrounding me. My husband who was encouraging me to sign up at the beginning and all along the way to get going and get my miles done. My children who have yelled "have a good run" as I'm stepping out the door. My family and co-workers who have consistently inquired about my training and giving me encouragement and support. Some were along the sidelines today cheering me on and I am eternally grateful. And lastly having some pretty amazing running partners has been a blessing for me. I sincerely don't know if I would have approached the starting line as prepared as I am today. They have been my rock telling me to keep going when I wanted walk the first time I ran 7 miles. They have told me to lace up those shoes when it was down pouring outside. And they have worked with me and my crazy schedule so we could get lunchtime and evening runs in. I am in debt to them for their support.
We had about a half hour before the race started which really only felt like about 5 minutes. We managed to get a few pictures in before heading to the starting line.
As I stepped off the curb into the crowd of people I looked around and absorbed some of the energy. I fumbled with my IPod to make sure it was working and selected my Nike App to help me keep a good pace. I looked around the crowd for familiar faces and it was go time.
I think I was pretty quiet for the first couple of miles. I know I was looking around at all the people in awhhh. I remember looking at all the shirts from the different running groups. But mostly I was thinking "am I really doing this?" It wasn't until about the two-mile mark before I felt a little less claustrophobic. Two miles is also where the first water station was. We flew right past a huge pack of runners who stopped for water and waved to Cassie's husband who was helping man the water station. This is about the time my confidence started to rise and the hills started to approach. We were cruising right up those hills and passing people. Wow! Those five months of training are going to start to pay off. Cassie and I settled into a nice pace and before we knew it we were six miles in. I remember Cassie and I talking about what a great run this is and how great we feel. This was also the time the first marathoner came whizzing past us. All I can say is IMPRESSIVE! We wound around neighborhoods I didn't even know existed. We smiled and waved at all the people who came out their front doors to cheer us on. We were having a really good run.
We finally came into a part of town that I was familiar with, but that also meant we were approaching the dreaded EAST SIDE HILL that we were most worried about. I needed to get into my zone. After running 9 miles and then go up a pretty good hill, I needed to dig deep. We trained on this hill several times. I knew where it slightly leveled off and I knew that it also kept going. As Cassie and I took on this hill we both had the same mission... I didn't train for five months to walk up East side hill. So many people stopped on this hill to walk, but not us. We found our zone and kept on going. We passed people and zig zagged up that hill. Cassie and I didn't talk except for the occasional "how ya doing?" and "oh man!" We knew once we made it up this hill we had friends ready to cheer us on and it was only a short 3 miles to the finish line. It felt like forever but we were determined to not let the hill win and it didn't.
As we hit Capital Way we knew we were in the home stretch. Cassie tells me that we needed to give it our all in the last mile. In my mind I was going as fast as I could! But somehow (with a little cursing at Cassie) I managed to pick up the pace.
We also knew that we would have lots of friends on the sidelines. Seeing familiar faces was very emotional for me. I had worked really hard to get to that point and having friends and family there to support me was amazing. But I needed to keep it together. Crying and running isn't a good combination. It makes it really hard to breathe!
I spotted these little beauties along the sidelines. So happy they saw me doing something totally out of my comfort zone.
As I stepped off the curb into the crowd of people I looked around and absorbed some of the energy. I fumbled with my IPod to make sure it was working and selected my Nike App to help me keep a good pace. I looked around the crowd for familiar faces and it was go time.
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| See us on the far right?!?! |
I think I was pretty quiet for the first couple of miles. I know I was looking around at all the people in awhhh. I remember looking at all the shirts from the different running groups. But mostly I was thinking "am I really doing this?" It wasn't until about the two-mile mark before I felt a little less claustrophobic. Two miles is also where the first water station was. We flew right past a huge pack of runners who stopped for water and waved to Cassie's husband who was helping man the water station. This is about the time my confidence started to rise and the hills started to approach. We were cruising right up those hills and passing people. Wow! Those five months of training are going to start to pay off. Cassie and I settled into a nice pace and before we knew it we were six miles in. I remember Cassie and I talking about what a great run this is and how great we feel. This was also the time the first marathoner came whizzing past us. All I can say is IMPRESSIVE! We wound around neighborhoods I didn't even know existed. We smiled and waved at all the people who came out their front doors to cheer us on. We were having a really good run.
We finally came into a part of town that I was familiar with, but that also meant we were approaching the dreaded EAST SIDE HILL that we were most worried about. I needed to get into my zone. After running 9 miles and then go up a pretty good hill, I needed to dig deep. We trained on this hill several times. I knew where it slightly leveled off and I knew that it also kept going. As Cassie and I took on this hill we both had the same mission... I didn't train for five months to walk up East side hill. So many people stopped on this hill to walk, but not us. We found our zone and kept on going. We passed people and zig zagged up that hill. Cassie and I didn't talk except for the occasional "how ya doing?" and "oh man!" We knew once we made it up this hill we had friends ready to cheer us on and it was only a short 3 miles to the finish line. It felt like forever but we were determined to not let the hill win and it didn't.
As we hit Capital Way we knew we were in the home stretch. Cassie tells me that we needed to give it our all in the last mile. In my mind I was going as fast as I could! But somehow (with a little cursing at Cassie) I managed to pick up the pace.
We also knew that we would have lots of friends on the sidelines. Seeing familiar faces was very emotional for me. I had worked really hard to get to that point and having friends and family there to support me was amazing. But I needed to keep it together. Crying and running isn't a good combination. It makes it really hard to breathe!
I spotted these little beauties along the sidelines. So happy they saw me doing something totally out of my comfort zone.
Morgan was able to jump into the race with me to cross the finish line. Amazingly, I was able to keep it together (for the most part) and not cry.
As I crossed the finish line I tried to absorbed what was going on around me. I squeezed Morgan's hand and told her how happy I was, looked up at the clocks to try and see my time and tried not to trip over the timing bumps. That's a lot for a brain that just ran 13 miles.
We were done and we did it without walking one bit. I still don't know where the drive came from but it's apparently there deep down inside. I will never say never again. I may say "wholly smokes!" or "yikes!" but I won't say "no way."
