13.1

I can't believe that I FINALLY accomplished something really hard that I said I was going to do! I've always been the queen of big promises but no follow through. I made the goal to lose weight ... hasn't happened... I made the goal to go back to school and graduate... hasn't happened... and the list goes on and on. But I FINALLY finished something that I said I was going to do. I finished a HALF MARATHON!! That is 13.1 miles. The distance from my house (by the Oquirrh Temple) to the AIRPORT if you can't invision how far 13 miles really is. Nuts, right? Well, I have an amazing Mother and an amazing Sister and and an amazing Aunt that all kept me motivated to finish. My mom and I ran together every Saturday for the last 2 months and we were really nervous about this race. The farthest we had gone before the race was 8 miles and I had to walk a bunch of it (my mom is a MACHINE and totally kicked butt-- she ran most of the 8 miles while I walked. I am so pathetic!) Needless to say, I was terrified that night before and couldn't sleep at all. Finally the morning of the race was here and I'm going to pee my pants I am so nervous. We get to the starting line (legacy bridge on the University of Utah's campus) and are surrounded with all this energy and thousands of people waiting to race. It was such an amazing feeling to be there and about to do something that difficult. We started running (Annie took off being the little bunny that she is) and my mom and DiAnne and I kept a good pace. We stopped at the first bathroom break (big mistake.. we stood in line for 15-20 minutes. Ridiculous!!) and then kept running. I was feeling pretty good until about mile 7. We had run pretty much the whole way up to here and all of a sudden my hip flexor and my knee started hurting so bad I couldn't even walk with out intense pain. It wasn't the "You're running a half marathon, of course your body is going to hurt" type pain, it was the "I feel like I've been hit in my knee cap with a sledgehammer and something is seriously wrong pain". I've never felt pain like that. Luckily I had my amazing mom and Aunt to drag me along the trail. I never once thought about quitting, but around mile 11 when I had tears streaming down my face I wondered if I would be physically capable of finishing... and all of a sudden my Husband came to the rescue and started running with me (in his flip flops). He is my hero... without him doing that I probably would have died on the side of the road. With my amazing Hubby by my side, I was able to run the last mile down South Temple and sprint to the finish and accomplish my goal of running 13.1 miles! It was such an amazing feeling to have all those people screaming for me and cheering as I crossed the finish (even though I was bawling like a baby at this point... I probably looked so pathetic :) But I did it!! And I couldn't be more proud of myself and my mom for doing this together. Nothing felt better than the group hug that Annie, my mom , DiAnne and I shared after crossing the finish line. I love those women so much! I finished the race in 3 hours 8 minutes so my next goal is to finish in under 3 hours (which I think we finished this one around the 2 hour 50 minute mark because of our bathroom waiting line, but I'm going by official chip time) Once I figure out my Knee issue, It'll be back to the training to do it all over again! DiAnne, my Mom, Annie and Me at the finish line. Thank you so much for pushing me and for doing this with me! Without these ladies I never would have been able to do this! I Love you all so much!