Today was the day I ran my 1ST half marathon! I won't go into a long history of how I got here except to say that last November I decided to use my phone APP of the Couch to 5K. After that was done I said, "What next?" I found a Bridge to 10K APP and did that. What next? My friend Beth said it would be a good time to train for a 1/2 marathon. I couldn't even begin to imagine doing that, but started the training process the first week of August. 293 miles later I ran my 1st Half Marathon!
Here Austin and I are, at the Expo, looking for my number...
The true thrill of getting my number.... :)
Beth and I at the Expo...
It was simply hilarious to walk out our hotel door and find out that we had rooms right next to each other. That afternoon Anthony and Brian took the kids to the sand Dunes and Beth, Addie Grace and I spent the afternoon relaxing in Beth's room.
That night we had the BEST spaghetti ever! The guys had pizza, but they HAD to try our spaghetti when we spent so much time raving about it. Delicious!
We went back to the hotel and were all in bed by 9p.m. For Brian and I we were a little restless during the night as I expected a little bit. Didn't want to miss my 5:45a.m. wake-up call.
Here I am being dropped off for the start of the race. Pre-race jitters definitely!
My sweet girl made me a poster that said: "Go Mommy go!"
Unbeknown to Beth and I, some interesting characters were in front of us running and that helped Anthony and Brian know when we'd be coming up. Here are some pirates.
A Star Wars dude...
Super woman -- women...
Another pirate...
And here we come. This was at mile one. We were warming up right away so, when we saw our families, we took off our top shirts/jackets and tossed them to the guys.
The guys were able to drive past us and stop at a few mile markers to cheer us on. We smiled for 11 straight miles. It felt awesome!
At mile 7 Beth saw the kids up ahead and then the people we didn't see were Anthony and Brian. They had staged the kids where they could run with us a few yards and the guys were up ahead ready to take pictures. This was a highlight of our run. Running with the kids. Here is Austin taking off on the run....
Reece in the red shirt and Beth, Lindsey and I right behind him. Jackson was running by his mommy.
The kids were grinning ear to ear when they got to run with us.
After this mile marker the guys had to get going so they could meet us at the finish line. I wish I had a picture, but at mile 10 we had to go up a huge bridge over the ocean. It looked like you were going up the first hill of a roller coaster. I was most worried about that hill, but Beth made sure we were on the edge of the bridge and the view was breathtaking. Before I knew it Beth was saying that we were at the top and at mile 10. We both cheered and were just so happy and thrilled that the scariest part wasn't so hard after all. It truly went by quickly as we looked out at the ocean.
Mile 11 was when I started really feeling it. I'm not surprised. The last two miles (of my 2 12 mile runs) were always the hardest. I had never run beyond 12 miles before in my life. But...by the time you get to mile 11 you just KNOW you're going to do it. My goal was to finish the race and to run the whole race. Even though the last two miles were hard - I KNEW I would do it!
Here we are with our medals!
Anthony and Beth...
The Williams...
The Megilligans...
We celebrated with an awesome lunch after a long shower and then took off for home.
I'm so thankful for Beth! There really are no words at all! It's been a rare time that I've not ping chatted, e-mailed, called, twittered, or spent time with Beth every day this year. Even during our long summer trip, it was a joy to keep in touch. Beth was a constant support through this training. We live SO close which was handy for us to do mid-week runs together and also some long Saturday runs. I loved this journey with Beth and so love our friendship!
I am SO not a bumper sticker kind of gal, but you just KNOW I had to get this one!
Never in my wildest imaginations did I ever think to make a phone call and confirm that a local park "was open for business". So of course you do all the building up and excitement over a whole afternoon of playing at the park. This is a first for us!
Oh that face: "What do we do now?"
To the rescue the older kids grab her little hand and tell her "we'll go feed the ducks!"
There's that smile!
While I was concerned that the whole afternoon would be a wash...we all took off down a trail and stayed even longer than we normally would have.
Oh yes they did....all the way down the creek they explored and had the time of their lives...
This sweet princess is "all girl" and doesn't like to get dirty so she opted out of that creek adventure... Turned out to be the best afternoon and we would have never had this much fun if the park had been open. I think I learned a great lesson...
