Half Marathon Finisher

Me (left) and Kristina (right) 13.1 finishers

I have been a total blog slacker. But it's all for a good reason.  These last few months have been INSANE. Who knew being in your "mid-twenties" meant every weekend was consumed with plans. I don't even remember the last time I had a full day of "Breakfast in Bed" with SOAPnet. The great news is it has been a lot of fun even if it has been overwhelming.

I can officially say I am a half marathoner. I finished the 13.1 mile race about 10 minutes under my goal time. I trained relentlessly for this race, each Saturday was consumed with running as my long runs got longer and longer. I felt my self get skinnier and I knew this would all be worth it in the end.

Race day finally came and my training partner Kristina who was battling a foot injury ended up toughing it out to do the race with me. As soon as we started I knew it was going to be so much more fun to do over two hours of running with someone else. We ran the entire time, except for a brief bathroom break which took way too long but someone decided to blow up the porter john. Each time we hit a water station we slowed to a fast paced walk and would do one water and one Gatorade. There were no mile markers along the course so the only way we knew how far we'd gone was by asking the volunteers throughout.

Kristina foot and knee came back to haunt her, so we split up around mile 10. I went ahead and battled the last long hill on my own. Only to be so excited when a guy who had recently finished told me once I got over the hill it was a downhill finish (thank you running gods!). I took the downhill at a sprint and saw my parents and fiance cheering me on. I crossed the finish line with blisters on my feet but with an overwhelming feeling of accomplishment.  Just the year before I had said a 10k would probably be my longest distance and here I was finishing MORE than double that. Barely a few minutes later I cheered Kristina across the finish line. Her first race ever was a half marathon, holy cow! Both of us so excited for how awesome we did.

After the race we got our medals and rocked our new tech t-shirts. I was insanely hungry and immediately wanted a pizza. I had spent the last 12 weeks training and eating better than I had my entire life, so I deserved a Mellow Mushroom pizza. And to end the day on a really high note, my fiance had bought me a 13.1 sticker for my car, and ceremoniously added it to my back windshield.