Me: Finishing a 1/2 Marathon

I am proud to say I have now completed my first 1/2 marathon!

The day before, I was nervous, anxious, and stressed about everything. Every possible negative thought and scenario was flying through my mind. I felt sick nearly all day. I started calming down once we were in the car and on our way. The race was in Columbia, just under 2 hours away from home. We dropped off Bub's with some friends, picked up Jaron, and headed out. Once we got there we picked up Meagan (who was at a work conference), grabbed our race packets and checked in to our hotel.

After relaxing for a bit, we drove to Olive Garden to meet up with the crew.
When I say crew, I really mean, Big Crew. There were 9 girls from my ward, Meagan and I, and our 2 hubbies. So 13 in all.
We had a blast eating and chatting and prepping ourselves for the big day the next morning. Unfortunately our server must have thought we were having a little too much fun, and we ended up being there for over 2 hours. Which was a little too long for my taste. But we made the best of it.
We went back to the hotel and dropped the boys off. Us girls headed over to one of the suites another group of girls had. We all painted our fingernails hot pink and had some fun Girl Talk.
Then the infamous bed time.
I'm not sure anyone in our whole group of 13 got more than 3-4 solid hours of sleep.
Personally, I tossed and turned and kept waking up thinking it was time for my alarm to go off.

All set up and ready for the big morning.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat in the morning, we set off for the race. It wasn't as cold as I was expecting it to be, but it was still pretty chilly. I was happy I had bought a jacket from Goodwill that I could wear and toss. Our crew walked over to the start line, snapped a few pictures, some of us did a short warm up jog, then it was TIME!!!

We joined the crowds of people lining up to start.
Of course by this point I was far more excited than nervous.
Meagan, Leia, and I, lined up before saying bye to our hubs. Luckily for us, as the crowd started moving, they jumped in from the sidelines and ran with us the first block or two. Then, of course, they took off.

The first 4 miles we so much fun! I had a blast running, chatting, and taking in all the excitement around us. There were little groups of people here and there along the race that were holding signs and cheering for people. But since we needed cheering too, we always hooped and hollered and got them to cheer for us.
One group of people had signs that were pretty raunchy but pretty hilarious too.
Us girls took turns leading each other around other runners and keeping our pace. At one point Meagan busted out: "I feel good! na na na na na" and we all jumped in singing and dancing the words. We passed a few other runners and they thought it was quite funny.
Around mile 5 we made a pit stop. I thought the line was too long, so after waiting 2 minutes, I took off and left Meagan. I ran hard to catch up with Leia, who had gone ahead. It took me about 1.60 miles running at a sub 8:00 pace to catch her. I thought for sure I wouldn't see Meagan again.
But between mile 8-9 she came out of nowhere!! She seriously hauled tail for at least 3 miles to catch up with us.
Once we were back together, her and I took off. Don't worry, Leia had found another running friend on the course so we didn't abandon her.
We ran hard for the next few miles and had such a fun time laughing, talking, and pushing each other. We kept a quick pace too, which was awesome.
Then the unfortunate hit.
If you've ever run any sort of distance, you know that running really triggers the digestive system. Well, apparently mine wanted to rebel between mile 10-11. I started feeling really sick and stomach crampy, but I didn't want to stop since we were in such a good groove!

Then came the hills.
Brutal, awful, terrible, end of the race, hills.

I really love hills, but these were especially tough being at the end while feeling sick. Meagan kept pushing me and did a great job of keeping us going.
Around mile 12.5, as we were cruising up the hill, we heard some loud cheering. It was our boys!!!
We were SO thrilled to see them, and they were thrilled to see us since we were making good time!
They pulled us through the finish line.
It wasn't easy at the end, but it was so worth it! And even though I thought every last ounce of energy was spent, somehow when I entered the finish chute I had a little more guts left and sprinted toward the end.

It was such an incredible experience to finish my first long race.
After I used the bathroom, got some water, and stretched a bit, I realized I wasn't as tired and spent as I thought I would be. I also wasn't as sore as I expected.
To me that says my training was spot on and I worked hard to get to that place.

Just after finishing. 

My time according to my watch (which was borrowed, and which I stopped at the pit stop).

My chip time was 2:10.

Our matchy-matchy boys.

They ROCKED the race!

Jaron had a time of 1:33 and Scott had a time of 1:37.

Me and Meagan post race.

We did it!

We did whaaaat?

It was really fun once we finished to watch and cheer for all the other girls crossing the line. We made quite the welcome noise! I loved watching each of my friends faces as they realized how close they were and that their friends were cheering and excited for them to finish. 

Running this race was really an incredible experience. I loved every minute of it! I never thought I could have so much fun running but I did! 

The next morning I told my hubby it didn't feel that much different than my training runs and that it felt a little too easy, so I needed to train and run a full marathon. I think part of the whole training/racing package is the work you put in to make the race feel easy. That's where the true grit lies. 

My new goals are: 

run a 2:00 half marathon

run a sub 2:00 half marathon

run a full marathon

I know I can do it, and I'm excited to work for something new! 

Bubs and his girlyfriend he stayed with. 

Aren't they so cute! They love playing together.