Check it off my bucket list

Well, I did my 1/2 marathon yesterday (October 3rd, 2009). It was both fun and terrible at the same time. Me and my Jenn have been training for about 2 1/2 months for this. I am not a runner by nature. For most of my life I have hated running. Thus the reason I like volleyball and swimming. But I felt the need to accomplish something so why not run 13.1 miles?

Jenn and I have been running together almost every run since we started. Our goals has always been to run 10 minute miles. I felt good about that.

We got up at 5 am yesterday and Carson, Jodie, and I headed to Lancaster, PA.- about 1 1/2 hours away- for the big run. Everything was good except my knee decided to swell up like crazy the night before.

My amazing and supportive husband had an interview in Arizona so he was out of town from Wednesday- Saturday. He took a red eye out of Las Vegas Friday night so that he could get to my run on Saturday!! What a guy! His plane got in at 6am and he drove straight to my run almost 2 hours away. He got there around 8am.

So we get all ready to run and Jenn tells me we have to run 9 minute miles the whole race to make it in 2 hours, which was our goal. WHAT!???! ! 9 MINUTES! I thought, sure I can do this. Then the race started...

It was good for the first 6 miles. We were staying under 9 minutes, then there was this horrible hill. Running up hill was hard, but running down hill was horrible. My knee has never hurt so bad in my life.

It wasn't great after that. Every mile felt like 3. We decided that the mileage was off. A bunch of runners were asking if they marked it wrong. Maybe we were all just tired. At mile 12 Jenn said we had to run hard, my brain said go legs go, but they would not have any part of it. I told Jenn to run ahead. She ran ahead for awhile and then I saw her run back towards me. I thought she had finished, but she said she couldn't finish without me. What an awesome friend. I felt so bad, she totally could have finished faster. We ran through the finish line together.

2 hours 3 minutes and 58 seconds.

So close, but so far away. I was exhausted. It was a very hilly course and I felt like I was about to have baby number 2. I go between being proud of myself and really disappointed. I really felt like I ran as hard as I could, but I think I could cut 4 minutes off right???

Right after we finished I said I wouldn't run another one, but then this morning I found myself looking for one to sign up for.

All in all it was a good time, the weather was beautiful, my family was there to support me, and I realized that over the past couple months Jenn and I have become pretty great friends.