Going the Distance

11 wks. o' training & 13.1 mi. later...I've finished my first half marathon & lived to tell about it (just not right away 'cuz I relaxed through Mothers' Day:). Somehow my initial attempt to re-cap were just deleted, so I'll try to reiterate but not sure it'll be as eloquent or detailed as first draft!
Anyway, the pics. show that I'm even thicker than I realized; however, @ least I can say I'm in better shape than when I started this pregnancy! Didn't restrict my diet much, but increased my water intake & logged 193.2 mi. in meantime. We owe the challenge to my crazy friend Krista who had the bright idea in the first place, but moved it up from Oct. in Leavenworth to practice run in May so I had no excuse in my first trimester! My friend Juanita's husband Burton was kind enough to shuttle us all down there last Sat. @ 6:45A-ugh!; my dad recorded the Rocky fanfare so we could play it as each runner climbed aboard the van:) That added some excitement to the early morning... My sporty outfit is courtesy of Britt in addition to the energy bar & Propel that she sent in preparation for the big day. Notice my cool chip timer around my wrist & the number to make me feel even more official...I had to go to the bathroom like 5x before the run even began, but still had to make Krista stop twice @ honey buckets! My stomach was hard as a rock by the end 'cuz I didn't dare drink any water en route-I'm sure my lil' avocado was not a fan of that nor the shunted blood but survived & has been quite active ever since so I think he's in good shape too with heartrate of mere 140! My entire family was really supportive; my mom & youngest sister were waiting for me around the final bend & I heard my dad yell my name right before they announced it over the loud speaker as I crossed the finish line! In Chris' defense re: my boys' absence, Cole had team pics. & a coach-pitch game right as I was ending so I sent them the other direction! The cheerleaders I had were a pleasant surprise 'cuz I was trying to avoid the fanfare similar to my mission homecoming:) All I know was I couldn't waste the $$ after I registered-still not amused that I had to pay someone else to run that far, but hey! My advice to any other novice runners is to merely have the goal to finish & not necessarily maintain a pace & then you'll be pleasantly surprised as we were with a final time of 2:33! For the record, the clock indicated extra half hour given to the full marathoners so I wasn't cheating I promise! I even took a pic. of almost every mile marker along the way if you want to verify that I ran the whole course:) I even had a crazy surge of energy @ mile marker #12 knowing that we were going to finish ahead of schedule! Not fastest girl in town nor the first to cross of the group from our ward (Go Juanita, Lori, Bishop & Brittany!), but we don't worry 'bout that:) Let's do it again next spring!!