[don't tell me the sky is the limit, there are footprints on the moon]

After this weekend I feel like a can conquer anything.  I almost get teary eyed just thinking about what I accomplished.

A while back I thought registering myself for a half marathon would be a way to keep me in shape.  Jenna, Lance and I started training strong.  Time went by and lets be honest, we were total slackers.  I'm extremely glad to Jenna about a month before the half marathon to keep me motivated and asked to go running.  I said yes when truly I did not want to go.

The last couple weeks of "training" were tough.  We got to 3 miles at our highest.  I became extremely nervous.  This wasn't going to be a 5k (3ish miles), not a 10k!  It was a freaking half marathon!  13.1 miles!  Granted it wasn't full, but a half was more than enough to make me nervous.  The night before I'll admit, I was so scared.  Jenna came over and I could tell she wasn't quite her bubbly self.  I asked her what was wrong and she told me how nervous she was.  I tried very hard not to let anyone see that I was nervous.

[I am the type of person where I don't hide my feelings.  If i'm mad, you'll know it.  If i'm sad, you'll see it.  If i'm frustrated, i'm sorry.]  So trying to hide my feelings was very difficult.  But I did not want Jenna to get even more worried than she already was we already were.

Honestly I don't think Lance even had any feelings about it, he just got up and did it haha.

Anyway, as we drove down to pick up our packet the night before I wanted to try and do everything possible to have all the energy I needed for the next morning.  I did the carb loading, drank plenty of water and wanted to get as much sleep as possible.  Ha. 4 hours is enough right!?

We went and picked up our packets, went to dinner, made a few last minute shopping trips, and tried to get to bed at a decent hour.

I heard my alarm go off at 2:15 and immediately felt like I had just fell asleep.  Snoozing for about 15 minutes the three of us got up and were ready to go by 3:00 am.  Jenna said an awesome prayer (which I'm sure we needed), and I felt more comforted that we would be able to finish the race.

We got on the bus around 3:45 and arrived around 4:15.  I was glad to hear that other on the bus hadn't really trained much either.  We all made jokes about how we wouldn't finish, although I was somewhat serious.  There were a few fire pits going to keep us warm, but with thousands of people, there was definitely some "push and shove" when it came to staying warm for almost 2 hours.

Close to 6 o'clock we started stretching, went to the bathroom and began to freak out.  At least I did.  As we crossed the starting point my mind began to go a million miles an hour.  My head phones wouldn't stay in my ipod so I carried it basically the entire time.  Yeah, it was a little annoying.  So we all got off to a great start, Lance in front of me and Jenna right behind me (so I thought).  I wasn't really paying much attention to anything other than keeping one foot in front of the other.  Basically I just followed Lance for a little bit.  As I ran up side by side with Lance I looked around I didn't see Jenna anywhere.  I was hoping she was ahead of me but I turned to Lance and asked where she was.  Since both our head phones were in he pointed backward.  I felt horrible.  I wanted the three of us to be in it together.  I realized I couldn't focus on anything but running or else it would wear me down, so I came to the conclusion that this is something we all had to do on our own and I was glad we were all running the same race together, not necessarily side by side.  Lance and I came up to mile 7-ish and realized we hadn't stopped running.  I was seriously in awe that I hadn't stopped yet and neither had Lance.  We decided to walk for just a minute to actually get a drink of water, rather than just trying to throw it in our mouths and hoped it'd make it in as we were running.

After stopping just that once, I'm pretty sure my legs were telling me that they liked the idea of slowing down, because that is exactly what they wanted to do.  We kept running up until about mile 10.  This is when the cramping began, for Lance and I at least.  I just kept telling myself that there were only 3 miles left, I had to keep going.  I took longer strides to try and make it easier.  It became harder and harder to keep running.  It was more like jog for 3/4 a mile then walk for 1/4 a mile, jog, walk, jog, walk, etc.  I tried not to pay too much attention to the mile markers but rather to focus on moving.  Except I knew when I was coming upon mile 13 because the people along the sidelines were telling us.  So I tried and tried to run that last stretch.  The last couple of blocks, I kept looking straight ahead and thought I saw the finish line.  I wasn't exactly sure if it was or not, so I still kept walking but tried to keep it at a fast pace.  The second I saw the yellow letters that said

F I N I S H

I almost started to cry.  I started to run again.  As badly as I wanted to walk through the finish line, that wasn't an option.  I may not have cried but my legs sure were.  I got to the gate "run way" and pushed myself to the end.  Oh my word.  I made it.  I quickly walked over to get some water so I wouldn't fall over and walked back over to the finish line to see Lance and Jenna make it though.  3 minutes after I had finished Lance came running through!  I was seriously so proud of him for how good he did!

The crazy thing was that there were MARATHON runners that were finishing with us.  They completed 26.2 miles in the time we completed 13.1!  Ridiculously crazy!  They are so inspiring.

We stood there moving our legs waiting for Jenna to come busting through the finish line.  Shorty after Lance and I finished Jenna came running through like a champion!

After a bit we went over for our complimentary massages.  It was worth the wait of standing in line for them!

Really, it felt to amazing to accomplish something so many people don't think they can do! I absolutely loved running this race, it was gorgeous and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not registered for it again next year!  Even though I can barely move (2 days later!) I've looked into a couple of different races and am getting excited just thinking about them!

Battle For Nobility - Foam Fest

The Dirty Dash

I may have found a new hobby.

"If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves. "

- Thomas Edison