Half Marathon

My goodness I look horrible in these pictures. Then again, I had just run my first HALF MARATHON!!! WOO HOO!!! I picked a goal, trained, and didn't give up. I wanted to run a half marathon back in 2009 but got pregnant right in the middle of training and ended up just quitting. In our last ward, a member of the bishopric sponsored a half-marathon every year and I decided this year that I was going to run it! I trained for 9 weeks and it was hard. There were a lot of nights I didn't want to leave Jon and the kids. I just wanted to spend time with them. Then I got really sick and took 2 whole weeks off. I had only run up to 7 miles before race day and I was worried it wasn't going to be enough to get me through. When I left the start line I kept an eye out for someone who was running about the same speed as me to be my pace partner. She is with me in the first picture. I don't even know her name but she was an important part of my race. It was her 3rd half-marathon and she was running 10 minute miles, which is a little faster than I was used to. I was pretty proud of myself that I kept up with her for 10 miles!! She was very encouraging and said she was going to make sure I finished. That picture of us was taken at around the 9 mile mark. Jon was there with my mom, dad, and the kids to see how I was doing. When I saw them I started to get a little emotional for some reason. I was tired and my joints were hurting and I just wanted to stop and go home with them. But I wanted to prove to them I could do it. Jon had very little faith in me during training, I could tell. Because I had only run 7 miles at the most he thought I was going to want to quit and that I would have regrets. My mom also admitted that she wasn't sure I would make it. But I was determined to finish and I did it. I ran the entire 13.1 miles and my race time was 2 hours and 25 minutes. My pace partner was standing at the finish line waiting for me. She had finished 5 minutes eariler. Wish I knew her name. Next up...hoping to run a Ragnar Relay.