Music City Marathon

Music City Marathon and Half Marathon

April 29, 2011

My First Half Marathon is DONE!!! I can not believe it, I stopped training 2 weeks into training. I got pneumonia, or the flu, (they never really gave me a clear diagnoses). I never really started training again since it took me 4 weeks from start to finish to feel better. It was a rough go. However I was still determined to do the half marathon. (And so was Paul as he paid for registration at that point).

Here's Paul and I before we started. This was at sunrise.

I was pretty good up till the 6 mile point, and I had to go pee really bad. Anyone who runs can probably tell you how uncomfortable it is when you have to pee. Once I stopped at the "rest stop" I never got my mojo back. Around mile 8 my right foot got a cramp. Pretty bad. By mile 10 I was favoring it and then my left knee started to act up. THrough all of this, my (God bless him) motivating husband was right next to me pushing me to keep going. "He kept saying annoying things like "It will al be worth it", and "you can do this", and the real zinger, "it's better than being home with the kids". Around mile 11, he said, "If you finish, there's a prize for a month's worth of free childcare", it made me laugh and run a little faster at the same time. :)

The feeling of crossing the finish line was an overwhelming surge of emotions. I could not believe I did it. When I put that medal around my neck I can't tell you how filled with pride I was. It was amazing. My finish time was 3:00:20.

Now let me finish by telling you I AM NOT A RUNNER. In fact I haven't been "running" since the race. But I want to start again. Since the news about moving, I haven't used any of my free time on me or fitness, but I will try and start soon. I honestly can't believe I did this. I heard about the race and thought, I want to do that, and before I knew it, I was at the start line thinking "what have I gotten myself into?!"

In the end, it was all worth it, I did do it, and it was great to spend that time with my man (sans kids). So it looks like he was right.
The only thing I'm waiting on is my coupon for childcare...hmm...