Run Forest, Run!

We did it!  August 27, 2011 my sisters, mother and I ran our first 1/2 marathon! Austin had been sick with a virus about 5 days before the race started so he wasn't able to run. No worries! We'll run the next one together.

It was great doing it with them though, for some reason it didn't seem as scary. I think it's because when ever all four of us get together we get extremely silly. Example A: 5:00 am on a yellow school bus riding up the canyon and we're giggling in the back of the bus about something I can't remember now because it was 5:00 am and nothing should be remembered at that time.

I didn't let my mind psych myself out until after the race. If I did it would have gone something like this "WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING?!?!?!" at which point I would have found a perfectly rational thing to do like hide on a bus. Surprisingly to me, I was calm during the whole thing. At each water station I calmly calculated how far into the race I was, thinking it was totally normal to have 10 more miles to run. And got excited when I realized I only had 4 more to go! It wasn't till afterward that I wondered what the heck I just did :)

Jennifer and Michelle on the last leg 

We all started out together, but ended up spreading out at our individual pace. The canyon was beautiful and was fun to run it being shaded and down hill most of the time. When I got out of the canyon a big wind picked up. I was so grateful for it because it propelled me forward and cooled me off.

Crazy how miles are relative.  When I hit mile 7 I remember thinking "More than half way! I can totally do this". Mile 9 I still felt good and realized I only had 4 miles to go "I've done that twice over! Psh, easy!". I chuckle because before this 3 miles seemed an impassible barrier.

Almost done!

I have never been so happy to see a finish line. I didn't take my eyes off it, afraid I would stop running and have to walk into the finish (no way!). Once I passed the line and someone handed me my medal, I walked as normally as I could (my legs felt like planks of wood) to the water station. Gatorade, water anything sounded amazing right then. After gulping down cup after cup, my stomach finally told me to stop. Wish I had listened to that sooner because I ended up just throwing it up later, anyway.

Our super star momma!

And now two days later I'm feeling great! No soreness, no aches. My body is still recovering, though. One minute nothing sound good to eat, then all of a sudden I am STARVING; sleep is also doing wonders.

 It feels so good to know I did something that was pretty hard for me. I've always wanted to do something like this, but didn't want to do it alone. How grateful I am for my mom and sisters!

Now on to my next race!