Last Sunday (5 days ago :)) I completed a half-marathon. That is 13.1 miles for you non-runner folks!. While I have always been fairly active, I have never called myself a runner. I ran to play basketball. I ran to stay fit in college, but only when I could get to the gym or aerobics class. After having 2 little ones in 2 years I struggled to find a workout routine that would fit with our schedule. We finally decided to purchase a BOB stroller (HIGHLY recommend by the way) and off I started..slowly. I have now been running for maybe 8 months? 2 months ago a friend encouraged me to maybe run this half-marathon. I told her she was crazy (she, by the way just completed the USMC full marathon..so yes...she is crazy!). I had never ran more then 4-5 miles at that point. Well, long story short...she drew me up a training plan and told me it was totally possible to finish training for the half (I had already been running consistently for 5 months). I took the training plan and went full steam ahead. Surprisingly, I LOVED the long runs. First 6, then 8, 9, and 10 miles...they were all so much more fun then I imagined. Who knew? I kept running around a 9-9:30 min/mile pace during those long runs so set my goal of running the half at 2hours even.
Here I am leaving the house EARLY for the half-marathon. Which, by the way was dedicated to all servicemembers...I dedicated mine to my awesome husband!
Here are some of my fellow "stroller warriors" We meet on Tuesday mornings with our strollers and run/ have a blast!
The race went very well...I felt fairly good the first hour and then the second hour my back started hurting a little bit. Here I am racing to the finish! I finished at 2 hours and 43 seconds. There were no "clocks" during the race so I am a little frustrated that I didn't know how close I was...I am sure I would have made it under 2 hours if I would have known!!
Immediately following the race I headed to the bathroom. My back was really hurting and I peeped bright red blood (which scared the dickens out of me). Here, I had just finished 13.1 miles and am bleeding?!? I then began to realize that I was probably having a kidney stone attack (lucky me). I went and talked to the medic just to see what he thought (I have never peeped bright red blood before)..he confirmed my thoughts. He encouraged me to head to the ER in Wilmington. I decided to make the very long, painful 1 hr drive back to Jacksonville to go to the ER there so that I would have friends to help and to be closer to the girls. At the ER, they confirmed the diagnosis and gave me some blessed pain meds.
SO, not quite the way I imagined for this day to go...I am already planning on running more half-marathons to redeem this experience. I am honestly so proud of myself. From not running at all to running a half right around 2 hours is awesome!
Thank you to all my friends who took care of my girls (overnight), drove me home from the hospital when I was too drugged to walk straight, brought me meals and otherwise just encouraged me. You are the best!
My Monkey
Jace and Bailey petting the birdie. 
It was my turn to bring breakfast for our Sunday School that Sunday...so I was creative (well, for me it was creative!) and made "eyeballs". Pretty cool! I also brought apples and caramel dip :). 
