Running Success

I was able to check an item off my bucket list that I've had on it for quite a few years and have attempted a few times in the past. On June 3, I ran my first ever half marathon! Yup, believe it, baby! Without too much thinking ahead of time, I signed up for the Minneapolis Half Marathon about 3 months ago. 

Running a half is something I've wanted to do since high school and my sophomore year of college I decided I was absolutely going to do it. At that time, I didn't have a particular race in mind, but I started training. I was up to 6 miles, which isn't a ton, but for me that was the furthest I had ever run before. It felt like a huge accomplishment. For some reasons that I can't remember anymore, I stopped running. Just stopped. Went cold turkey. 

That was the end of my running "career", but I still had that half marathon written on my list of things to do before I die (I seriously have a list), and it was staring me in the face. May of 2011, my friend Rachel and I started running together and we ran a 5k in town. It was anything huge, but it was my first  race and again it felt accomplishing. Again, for some reasons that I can't remember anymore, I stopped running. Just stopped. Went cold turkey. 

This year, Rachel and I signed up for Grandma's Marathon (we were going to do the half) and were super excited for it! It's held in Duluth, MN...can you say gorgeous?! It's a lottery drawing and they would be picking something like 6,000 people, so we thought for sure our names would get drawn. They didn't. We were devastated. 

Rachel found the Minneapolis Marathon, and it isn't a lottery, so we signed up and paid the fee. The fee is the real kicker here, guys. I don't think I could have continued my training if I hadn't forked out something like $70 just to enter the race. I persevered through the training with just 12 short weeks to go from running 1 mile to running 13.1 miles. I had to wake up at 5:50am during the week to get my longer runs in before work and to stay clear of the insane spring heat. I stuck to the training schedule and pushed through lots of knee pain at times and I made it. My longest run was 12 miles and I felt MORE than prepared for race day and couldn't wait to kick it's butt.

In the corral waiting for our turn to start 

Race day came and it was awful. It was honestly one of the hardest thing I've ever done. By mile 6 I was feeling exhausted and by mile 9 I felt defeated. It was hot and I was tired. I could have probably walked just as fast as I was running, but it was my goal to not walk...no matter what. Somehow we made it to mile 13 and when I saw that finish line, I wanted to be DONE! I bolted for that line and could hear my sister cheering my on and calling out my name to look at her and her sign, but I couldn't. I couldn't do anything other than cross.that.line.

Off we go! 

About mile 2 and feeling wonderful! Feeling like I could do this all day

Mile 5ish and slowly starting to feel the drain.

Mile 12 and feeling defeated. I could not pick my legs and was dragging.

We made it and found shade! YAY!

He's always been my biggest fan. 

I'm toying with the idea of running another half this fall and really working on getting in shape throughout the summer. I want to work on building muscle and doing some cross-training help prevent injury. I'm not completely committed to the idea of another miserable race (hopefully the next one wouldn't be so bad since I know what to expect), but I would like to see how it compares to this one. I also am hoping to participate in the sprint triathlon in Yankton this fall.