Half Marathon

I made the goal after Micah was born to run a half marathon before his first birthday. I have always exercised but I had never even run a mile. I hated running. I will also note that I am unbelievably un-athletic. I have no coordination whatsoever. I joined a running group to have help and for the accountability. There were many Saturdays that I didn't want to wake up at 5am (or earlier) and go run the 6-12 miles but I pushed through and didn't skip a single long run. I was so nervous this past Sunday morning that I wouldn't be able to finish and that I wasn't ready. It was freezing at the beginning of the run and it never really warmed up. It was very windy, too and I ended up with a lot of windburn. My hands had started cracking by the end from the wind. Gloves would've been a good idea... oops! I would much rather cold than hot, though. I had a wonderful cheering section at 2 points along the route (David, Micah, my mom, and David's parents). Micah had a onesie on that said "I'm proud of my mommy" with a picture of us. So sweet! It was so cold, though, you can't see it in the pictures because he was all bundled up. They were all so encouraging; they made it a lot more fun. I was so surprised at how much I actually enjoyed myself along the run. Around mile 9 I started asking myself "why are you doing this? why couldn't you have just gone out and run a little to lose the baby weight? Why did you have to set this big goal?" and then around mile 11 I was thinking "is this ever going to end?" (by then I was very bored with running and the route wasn't too exciting). The last mile was by far the hardest because I just wanted to finish. Needless to say, I finished! It was such a great feeling of accomplishment. I have never set and goal like this and followed through. Crossing the finish line was one of the best feelings ever. My cheering crew was there waiting for me. Thanks so much to them for encouraging me all along the way. Thanks especially to David who has been so encouraging for the past 7 months while I was training. We went straight from the race to Grand Luxe because all I wanted was a big stack of pancakes and hot chocolate.

Here are some pictures of the day...

my cheering section my biggest fan (Micah)

en route...

crossing the finish line! bundled baby

sweet hubby!