1st Half Marathon

All the gear necessary. I defiantly do get very nervous for these things. Not your typical excited nerves, but I think I'm going to die nerves. So even getting all this together I was scared...I love to train for these things. On my own, by myself on the road, in the mornings. But the hype of race day and the people and packet pick up, loses something for me.

On race day in the car. We were staying out of the rain, eating bananas and sucking down shot packs.

Once the race started, my mom was making a mad dash to get to me. She had called me and we were screaming where each of us was. The funny thing is, we were right in front of each other. Racers were flying past us and I stopped to get a picture. It was a fun, sweet moment.

My mom and step dad Doug went to great lengths to follow me around and take pictures. I'm so thankful. I didn't realize how much it would mean to me to me to see them throughout and later have these pictures.

At the 6 mile mark, I was in Marysville where I was greeted with a huge group of people waving and saying hi. Including Noah who has cheered me on in the early mornings and encouraged me to keep running for the race. It was great to see him and everyone else cheering me on.

You will also notice that I no longer have my jacket. Just after 4 miles, I got hot and I took off my jacket and was holding it, but not seeing anyone to hand it off too. So I used my awesome iPhone to call my mom who told me they were at the turn around point, 4 more miles away. I had to make the decision to drop it. I left it behind a post just before Union Slough. I am somewhat hoping it is still there, but I just have to be ok if its not. Its all part of it right?

And here they are! How lucky am I?!

Here I am at the finish. My music cut out for the entire run and my Nike pace tracker was telling me I was a mile ahead of what the race was saying. So it congratulated me for running 13.1 miles when I still had a mile to go. I also got a side ache that didnt end until the finish..all of these things had never happened in my practice runs. But needless to say the volunteers were great and it wasn't crowded, and everyone had smiles on their face.

We survived. It takes quite a few people to make this happen. SO thankful to Tony who took care of the kids in the early mornings and on Saturdays. He never complains and is always the first to congratulate me over my accomplishments. He had to wake the kids and dress and feed them, as well as driving everyone to meet up to see me. Thankful to my mom and Doug who woke up at 5 am to make in just in the nick of time.

Until next time!

Im not sure about race times and things. The race reports I did it in 2:02, which would be slightly disappointing since Ive been running consistanly faster than that. But according to my Nike plus, it reads this exactly...

Distance: 14.65 miles

Time: 2:05:19

Pace: 8'33 per mile

Calories: 1,432

So if this is the case then I ran a 1:55 half which would make me very happy. Either way, I am glad that I set a goal and stuck to it and it is forever off my bucket list!