Half-A-Thon

My personal belief is they should start calling half-marathons half-a-thons because it's just easier to say. And everyone would know exactly what you meant by saying it. I'm just trying to make life simpler.

On a related note...

Four days ago I ran a half-a-thon with Mari-Beth and Adriana. And it was amazing!

We did so well!

The original plan was for Sarah and I to run it together and then Mari-Beth and Adriana joined to create our team of 4! "Team Sisters" (Because we really are all sisters. Me and Sarah are obviously. Mari-Beth and Adriana are sisters-in-law. And Mari-Beth and I have been sisters from the beginning!) very fortunately Sarah got pregnant and couldn't join :( A new niece or nephew will make up for it though.

So my goal was to run the entire 13.1 miles. No walking, no stopping, no dying. Just go go go! 

And I did. 

Before the race, my longest run was 10 miles in exactly 2 hours. (Okay, so I didn't follow the training schedule as I should have) But, I thought, "this is do-able."

We woke up at 3 am and got to the bus by 4 am. We then stood in the dark and in the cold up in the canyon huddled around a tiny fire with thousands of other people for an hour. That was probably the worst part. The adrenaline was gone and I was ready to get back in bed. 

But of course, once the race started, it was all back ten-fold.

It started out well, the weather was perfect for running and 6 miles went by in no time. Then came 7 and 8 and 9...and 10...and I started to believe my legs were falling off. My breathing was easy, no side aches, no fatigue! However, EVERYTHING from my waist down ached. My hip flexors, my quads, knees, calves, shins, ankles, even the arches of my feet were screaming at me! But I kept going. And I kicked it up a notch the last mile. After 12 you think, "Okay 1 more mile. I can run faster." However, you forget how long a mile really is, and the only thing that kept me going was seeing that large blue FINISH in the distance.

2:16:41

I finished faster than I had thought I would, and apparently than Mitch and the other husbands thought, because they weren't there when I crossed that under that big blue sign. I'm not going to lie, it was more than slightly disappointing. But sorry's were said and forgiveness was given.

Mari-Beth and Adriana did AWESOME! Mari-Beth had surgery just barely 2 weeks previously and Adriana freaking found time to train with a little baby! Who does that?! Rock. Stars.

We all went out to breakfast and I could tell early on I was going to be MIA for a few days. My legs were killing me just sitting there. I came home, attempted to ice, and fell asleep for THE REST OF THE DAY. I then slept all through the night and laid around and complained and iced and heated all the next day.

But, I'd do it again.

Definitely.

Except next time I'd get some of those magical gel inserts I hear are little gems. I'd also make a longer playlist. With all the short runs I didn't realize I'd need to have a few hour playlist to keep things interesting, instead it just repeated. Ah well, live and learn.