13.1 or bust!

American River Parkway Half Marathon- DONE! It was a great experience. Here's a group shot before the race started. We didn't get a group photo after the race, but that's okay. We all looked pretty jacked up by then!

We got there with enough time to take care of some bathroom "business" (a MUST before a long run!) and walk around to a few booths. As we were walking, we started talking big. Like Marathon, big. Some of us thought that would be a "fun" idea, to run a marathon together! We laughed about it, but I was seriously thinking, yeah, I'd like to do that soon. I mean, I'm half way through the training now, right?
Ask me how I felt about it at mile 10! Not so enthused about 26.2 miles. In fact my exact words were...well.. Hell NO! It was truly how I felt!(Its just like asking a woman who just gave birth if she wants to have more children. I think a similar response would follow!)

So the race started with Brian and Justin WAY ahead. The four of us stayed together through the first 4-5 miles. But by mile 8-9, Becky and I were the only ones together. Everyone else was running solo. Anyways, at about mile 1o I was hitting a REALLY hard brick wall- like the hardest I've ever hit before as a runner. Becky had said she was hitting a wall, and I commented that I was hitting it hard. Two ladies next to us tried to cheer us on, which was very thoughtful. But, it wasn't that we were going to give up. It was just SO HARD at this point, we had to mentally "breakthrough" the wall. Physically, I was well past done. This is when I mentally have to power up. Well, my theory was, as long as I was breathing normally, I was going to keep moving as fast as I could. It worked. I kept moving.

Here we are getting ready to cross the finish line. Our game plan is, when you get to about the last 1/4-1/2 mile of the race, you make a break for it. When you can see the finish line, it becomes an all out sprint. Becky was about 2 strides ahead of me. She looked back and grabbed my hand, so we could cross the finish line together. It means something to us- with all of our training together- to cross the finish line together.

Crossing the finish line was quite a euphoric feeling, a powerful feeling, even. I can't quite describe it. It might be one of the reasons why I love to run. All I can say is, it felt good accomplishing something that was really physically and mentally hard for me. It was so hard, but so worth it!! Running that distance for me is so much more mental than it is physical.

Anyway, mine and Becky's time on the picture says 2 hours 22min- that's the gun time. But our actual time, when we crossed the starting line (the time our micro-chips recorded) was 2 hours 19 min- which shaved about 14 minutes off of our first Half Marathon time- YES!!! I was hoping just for a minute or two improvement, but 14 minutes was beyond what I'd even thought of!!

Brian did so great! He ran it in 1 hour 57 minutes!! He shaved a minute off of his time from the last one-dang he's fast! But Justin beat us all, coming in at 1 hour 53 minutes! Yaw-ser!! Maybe its all that soccer playing...

Dena came in at 2 hours and 33 minutes- which is outstanding, especially for her first time, AND she was sick the week before! Terry came in at 2 hours 25 minutes. He continues to amaze me. I think pretty soon, he's going to outrun us all-distance and speed!

Brian is the best husband ever! He finished up when we were at mile 11. He ran back to the car to get the camera and move the car closer cause he knew we were going to barely be able to walk afterwards, and we parked pretty far away. So, he was back in time to take these pictures of us coming in! I wish I could have caught some pictures of him coming in! It was great to cheer on the rest of the group as they crossed the finish line. T. Weav, J. Webb and D. Webb rocked the house for their first Half Marathon!

Brian and I feel so blessed to have family and friends who love and support us. It was an amazing experience- something we will definitely do again. As far as a Marathon goes, I'm sticking with the Half for now. I'll keep the Marathon in my mind....just WAY in the back!

Ready to Run...

This was a full week. We had a good, but crazy week. J had two baseball games, we had numerous church meetings, B had activity days, I had classes, we seemed to go from one crazy day to the next successfully enough.
Wednesday night I had the worst allergy attack of the season. Brian was gone part of the night studying. But when he was home, he was totally making fun of the fact that my eyes were swollen and watering at an alarming rate, and that I couldn't finish a sentence without sneezing at least 4 times. I won't even go into what was coming out of my nose! At least he offered to pick up some meds from the store for me. Sweet man that he is-always looking out for me. I believe his comment was, "hey, I can stop by the store and pick up some medicine for you, that way we can turn on the whole house fan tonight..."
Oh yeah. It was 94 DEGREES on Wednesday!! Yeah! Its April, people! We had a three day stretch of the 90's. I'm really fine with that level of heat, but I was not prepared for it to hit in April. Although I must say, we really enjoyed using Brian's parents pool on Monday night for a little FHE action. That was awesome.
Okay, okay. I'm talking in circles here. Sorry. I do have a point to my story. So, Brian and I, along with 4 of our good friends-Becky and Terry; and Justin and Dena, are training for a half marathon that we are running (in less than a week) on May 2nd (American River Parkway Half Marathon to be exact!). Here's a picture of all the crazy runners: (although, we are not running here!)

Anyway, since its getting to the end of our training schedule, we are having to work in a long run- like 10+ miles, once a week, in addition to a few short-er runs. We usually try to go running in the mornings. Its just mo' betta that way- for life and schedules, etc. However, Brian and I can't run together for two very good reasons:
1-we have little children that can't be left alone;
2-Have you noticed he's slightly taller than me?? The man has substantially longer legs than I do, and runs MUCH faster! Due to a lack of self motivation on my part, I need a partner (or partners) in crime to help keep me motivated.
A little history: So, mi Amiga, Becky and I have been running together for a few years. This is the second half marathon we'll be doing together. (First Half we did 2 years ago with Brian and my sister, Gina-see picture below). Gina was our inspiration for this one. She's the one who started it all...

It was a great experience. At the level of greatness that I will remember the experience my whole life. That great. Anyways, although Brian and I swore we would never do it again (much like childbirth, I think...) here we are two years later, having forgotten the pain, we've recommitted...and brought a few friends along for the ride!

Terry started running with Becky and I about six weeks ago. Dena and Justin used to run with Brian and I when they lived here, but sadly, they moved away, and now do their running closer to home. But we've all been checking in, and trying to help motivate each other. Needless to say, we are all totally excited to run the Half together.

So, back to this week. Sorry for the run around, but I felt you really needed to understand a little history! Becky, Terry and I coordinated our schedules to fit a long run in Wednesday afternoon. The weather forecast said mid-80's for a high. We carefully planted some Propels along our running route as to not dehydrate ourselves and thought we were good to go. After about 3 miles of running in what was really 94 degrees- we were done- and when I say done, I mean, well-done! We were cooked! I have never sweat so much in my life! Yeah, 12 miles was NOT happening. We stopped and drank a little, cooled off, and managed to eek out another 3 miles, if only to rescue a few more of our pre-planted drinks along our running route. (Thanks to Rachel and Michelle for helping me with kidlings!!)

So, back to re-scheduling our run. I know I said we like to run in the mornings, but we can't do our long runs in the morning because they take TOO LONG. We realistically have to carve out a 3 hour time slot for getting ready, and then the run-start to finish. Its a big chunk of time. So, a morning run would mean starting at 4 a.m. which is way to early to even be awake, let alone run!

We rescheduled for Friday evening. It was the perfect plan. Brian had to be somewhere, but our kids were taken care of, thanks to Weaver daughter babysitting. We had grand plans for Brian to bring back dinner- with lots of red meat- right as we finished our run, so that we could reward our hard work with a feast afterwards. It was a great plan. Anyone remember what was happening Friday evening, say around 6pm? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Okay, I'll tell you. It was RAINING, THUNDERING, and LIGHTNING! HELLO!!! 48 hours earlier it was 94 degrees. The ENTIRE day on Friday it was beautiful, blue skies. We hit around 4pm- clouds gathered. 5:30, I called Terry worried about the ugliness that was developing. 6:40 at exactly the same time we finally stepped foot outside, raindrops came, and so did the thunder. Amazing timing. What crazy weather we had!

Well, this story has a happy ending. We ran in the rain, and were supremely grateful it was 60 degrees instead of 94 degrees. We did finally complete our last training run, and as we rounded the second-to-last corner, Brian drove by with the BBQ dinner we were salivating over. It was a great day. Totally crazy, and typical of the week, but great. We all got to eat yummy food, and we lived happily ever after.

The End.

Oh yeah. Now, I can officially say, WE ARE READY TO RUN!