umm, did I just finish a 1/2 marathon?! Why yes I did!! Thanks for asking!!!!!!!

Um yeah...you read it right. I just finished my FIRST 1/2 marathon! The NC Marathon!! Yeah me! What? You say you didn't know anything about it? I never mentioned it or blogged about it?? That's b/c I only told a handful of people...for 1) fear I would back out 2) fear I would not finish and 3) fear I would die trying! ha I didn't even tell my parents! I DID have it in my sidebar under my "ready to run...races I am looking forward to" but I am sure no one pays attention to that!

What I am most proud of is that I did it almost exactly a year after starting running! I am soo happy and amazed!

Me & my medal I will wear tonight while I sleep!!

OK so race report...boring but must be told:

I got up this morning about 4:50 AM! UGH The race started at 7am in High Point (Furniture Capital of the World...wooo)...about 30 mintes away. I hitched a ride to HP w/ my across the street neighbor at 5:45 AM. Hubbie stayed home w/ OG b/c she had a soccer game. That made me a little sad but it was too early for her to be up and trucking to another city, so I was fine with it.

As we pulled into the parking deck at the race I panicked! I had not brought my hand held water bottle thingie with my sports beans in the little side pocket!!!! OH NO!!! I set it out and had it filled and ready to go...in my rush this AM I just left it! OMG! I was freaked. I have never been on a run without water! I was hoping to find a vendor somewhere that might be selling some hand helds but no, there was no one...and I had no money to pay them with anyway so that was a problem. Luckily one of my best friends Mom came up and let me have her reuglar old water bottle, like you get in the grocery store. That would have to do.

And as a side bar...right before this I had been in a super long bathroom line! The pic does not do it justice but it was long!!!

The potty line...this pic does not do it justice but it snakes around 2 different ways! CRAZY!

So anywho, after a tearjerking National Anthem, we were off. I ran into a few friends before the start of the race...one being Love & Labs (who did AWESOME btw)...but none of them were around at the start. So I began by myself. Two minutes into it as person after person began to pass me, and I worried more and more about not having my own real water bottle, I began to second guess myself. "I can't do this...I am not strong enough for this...I did not train for this...why on EARTH am I doing this?" These were some but not all of the crazy thoughts that went through my head.

Me with Love & Labs (who is also a Chi O alum) before the race

Then around 9 minutes in an angel bounced up alongside of me! One of my best friends and an old roommate. Turns out she was still in the long potty line when the race began...and when she got out to the start she didn't start far enough back and missed crossing over the timing mat at the beginning(that sux!). Anyway, she was trying to catch up w/ her Dad (who was doing the full and was a little bit ahead of us) but she gave up I guess when she came upon me. And she just had a baby at the end of January...(who I am the Godmother to thank.you.very.much)...so she JUST started back running 6 wks ago. She has done 3 marathons I think and numerous 1/2's. Her husband (also running the 1/2) put her on a pretty strict running plan for this race...so she would not hurt herself. Her plan was run 5 mins, walk 5 mins. But she is faster runner than I am...so when she would walk and I would continue running, she would eventually catch up with me when she started running again. But she was sweet to stay with me. I told her numerous times to "go on, don't sacrifice your run for me" but she said if I didn't care, she wanted to stay with me. She also mentioned that fact that her time would not register anyway b/c of the start pad fiasco of her not crossing the start line so it didn't matter anyway! HA Which actually, the results are up...and she was counted. She has no start time but her end time was almost the same as mine...so I guess they assume she started out at the beginning and counted her with the official start time.

Now, I have not ever run more than just over 6 miles a a time in my life...and since October I have not run more than 5 miles at a time...usually more like 3. So I KNEW this was going to be interesting. I think after about 25 minutes maybe I started the run walk process with her. But we were all over the board and did not stick with her plan. OOPS! There were downhills which we wanted to take advantage of and run when we should be walking and up hills we walked when we should have been running...so we switched it up and walked when we thought it best and ran when we thought it best. And we often ran more than 5 mins at a time (again, NOT sticking with her plan)...and many times would only walk a few minutes and not the whole 5.

When we got to 7 miles I could not believe I had gone that long! And then when we hit 8 and 9 I had a few moments of meltdown but she kept me going. I kept telling her I would have never gotten that far without her!! We chatted and laughed and had a good 'ole time. We ran through sprinklers and hoses together...shared GU (hmm, that was my 1st experience w/ GU, the plain was not bad but very sticky!)...made sure we were running and smiling when we saw the official race photographers...walked water stations together and really enjoyed ourselves. We didn't push it...we just enjoyed our time out there and concentrated on getting it done.

Toward the end as we came into downtown we could hear the music and knew we were only about a mile away. About that time the anouncement was made to us from a nearby policeman that the leader in the FULL Marathon that was going on was about to pass us! LOL And he did...there he went. It was funny!

But as we rounded a corner we were in full on downtown...there were more fans out and it was great hearing the "just 2 more blocks". My calves were cramping up but I kept at it. We were going to finish together and finish it RUNNING!! As we turned that last corner there were tons of people cheering and calling our names...people we knew! It was great!! We crossed the finish line together holding hands and holding our arms up in a "we did it" pose! Loved it!

Me & my running buddy Amy aka: "The Hotts"

WE DID IT!

We were immediately greeted with cold wet face towels (AWESOME) and MEDALS! yeah! My 1st medal! I took about 10 secs to catch my breath and then I lost it and cried. I could not believe I did it. I finished a 1/2 marathon...in less than 3 hrs! 2 hrs 48 mins to be exact! I was going to be fine with just over 3 hrs and would settle (but be disappointed) with 3:15. But it was 2:48!! WOOOOOOOOOOO! As I walked a round for a few minutes in amazement a friend found me and gave me a huge hug. I had spoken with her earlier in the wk and told her I didn't think I could do it and that I was scared to death. She gave me a good talking to and reminded me of the story I already knew about her doing her 1st 1/2 on Feb 14th of this yr on her 50th bday! It took her 3 hrs & 24 mins but she finished. She told me if she could do it I could do it. And she inspired me to keep at it and not fret. Well when she found me & hugged me I LOST IT! I SOBBED on her shoulder. It was wonderful oddly enough!!! And so cool.

We also in the end ran back onto Love & Labs who did awesome! She smoked us!! She is big runner too and just had twins last summer and this was her 1st time doing a 1/2 again after having the babies!! (She was my ride home too so on the way home we just chatted and gossiped...it was great!)

Us three gals at the finish!!

We of course partook in the post race food fest...yum!! No beer this time...I mean there was beer but it was almost 10am and I didn't much want beer!! But the food was great...the weather was overcast (and we even had a few raindrops for about 5 minutes) and sort of cool...my regular old plastic water bottle that I refilled about 4 times did me well. We also watched a lot of the full marathoners come in...some of the men with bleeding nipples! Man that was brutal!! And a we left there was someone being wheeled out on a stretcher! NOT GOOD! And I look forward to seeing the official race photos! Hopefully there are some of the finish that I can share.

SO, the NC Marathon race was a success...I heard nothing but good things from the 5k'ers, 1/2'ers & full runners! The course WAS hilly, but the water/Gatorade stations were great...they had goodies (MnM's, fruit chews, energy bars etc) at them in the latter miles...there were constantly people on bikes on the course driving by and asking if we were ok...it was scenic for the most part. I enoyed it! And I FINISHED! THAT was the best part!! Congrats to everyone involved on a job well done and congrats to my friends and family (who knew about this, LOL) for supporting me and telling me that I could do it.

Now the real racing begins...I will do real official 1/2 training (starting in 2 weeks) for the next 16 wks for the VA Beach 1/2 Marathon! It is FLAT (yeah!) but I hear super HOT!! ick. Should be interesting. But until then, I think I'll go take a nap! Not sure how I am gonna get up the stairs...earlier it took me a while...and as the muscles have tightened, I am thinking I should settle for a nap on the couch. Yeah, that sounds good right about now. And I will sleep in my medal!