Not Quite the Post I Had Hoped to Write

There’s a part of me that doesn’t even want to talk about the actual race. I could go on and on for days about meeting some of my favorite Marathon Mommies and how awesome they are. I could talk forever about how I wished I could take them home with me in my suitcase because they were so wonderful. But the race? The Half Marathon from Hell? Bleh.

Okay, it wasn’t from Hell…but it certainly wasn’t heavenly, by any stretch of the imagination.

In hindsight, I realize that as I prepared for the elevation difference by drinking lots and lots of water, my body was retaining all that water to prepare for…something else. I wish I could say that after mile 3, my breathing regulated, my muscles regulated and my stomach was fine…but I know better than to lie to all you awesome ladies. (Ya’ll run faster than I do…’nuff said.) I actually felt like I was going to throw-up the entire race. I walked WAY more than I ever wanted to. Nothing felt right. And that’s not even starting on the wind. (I know I’m a klutz, but holy cow…the wind nearly tripped me!!) I was bummed because while my first half (in October) was super hard – I enjoyed every minute of it. This time around, despite my grand ideas …it was just hard and I wanted to get it over with. I do believe this is what Miss Suzie P called: HUMBLE PIE…at a much higher elevation than I’m used to eating that humble pie. Bleh.

The silver lining of all of this includes many things: I finished. Even though it wasn’t all that great…I overcame. (And somehow (no idea how) improved my time by 4 minutes.) But mostly? The best part was that I met some of the most fantastic women in person…instead of just the internet. :-) I got to spend a ton of time talking and hanging out with Erin who helped me make it through this event. I could NOT have done this without her. (I'm so proud of her...she left me in the dust…don’t let her fool you!) I got to hang out with the person who inspired me to run…and others that help keep me running now. I wish I could express how wonderful it was to meet all of you Marathon Mommies and how much it meant to me. Even those that I didn’t “know” very well, I just was in awe of everyone around me. It was just so gosh darn exciting, I tell you!

The big ‘ol lesson I gained from this is that I’m going to get back on that proverbial horse and not give up. I’ve only been running for a little less than nine months. Not only that, I started big with a half marathon (for not doing any sort of running before in my life) and it’s probably time that I head on to train in smaller segments. I’ve got my first ever 5k coming up for the Race for the Cure in May. (Hurray!) And then I’ll probably do another in June to keep my interest and to give me a little bit more confidence. After that, I’ll start training for another half marathon a little closer to home in October. After that? Who knows…but I’m not going to stop.