13.1

Well, what a fun little journey that was!

Quite honestly, I didn't give a whole lot of thought to the blog post way back in September or so when I declared that I wanted to run a half marathon sometime in my life. I wantonly threw the words onto the screen and published them without much consideration of the fact that they'd be seen by others and perhaps even remembered by a few.

Somewhere along the way, it occurred to me that I'd kinda committed myself, lest I have to crawl back to my faithful readers with my head hung low admitting that I couldn't wouldn't follow through.

Experiencing the progress was so exciting. I remember running that 5K and thinking that there was no way - and I mean NO WAY - that I could run that distance 4 times over. I remember the day I ran 6 1/2 miles thinking there was no way - and I mean NO WAY - that I could run that distance twice over. I remember hitting 10 miles and thinking "hey! I think I can do this!"

I need to give a little shout-out to my lungs. I am so proud of them. If you've spent any time around me over the last few years, you know my lungs and I aren't on good terms. Finally after years of pumping them full of steroids, something happened. Last year, since I was mysteriously improving, my doctor told me to cut back to taking the steroid inhaler once a day. I could not for the life of me remember to do it once daily, so after a couple days' lapse with no problems, I decided to see how long I could go without needing it. Here we are, my lungs 9 months on the Advair wagon, and doing mostly fine. They've been troopers, coming running with me on days when the temps were in the 30's, the coldest of which was the actual race day itself. They get their own medal.

That said, things were a little touch and go on race week. I was afraid that it wasn't going to happen. I had a sore throat and a bunch of crud going on starting about Wednesday or Thursday before. Illness WILL activate my asthma, but at least it's only intermittent and can be controlled with a little extra non-steroidal fun. As I was maxing out on Airborne tablets, guzzling my rescue inhaler, and subsisting on 3 hours of interrupted sleep on Saturday, I was honestly a little doubtful that I was going to fulfill my goal of running the entire 13.1.

I definitely did not feel 100% when I woke up on race morning after 5 hours of sleep (hey, at least I got a full night of sleep over the course of the two nights prior, right?). It was below 30 degrees outside. Amazingly enough, though, as soon as I started running, my chest cleared and my airway opened up (I have, like, the opposite of exercise-induced asthma). Clearly my body was in survival mode.

The first half, I wasn't really thinking about the finish line at all, as it just didn't seem to be a reality at the time. I was just trying to keep up with the 4:30 marathon pace team since I was hoping to finish somewhere in the vicinity of 2:15. Eventually I slowed down some, and they lost me a little before the halfway. After the halfway point, though, this magical feeling came over me, like this thing that I have been working moderately hard for over the last several months might ACTUALLY come to fruition. As I started thinking about how many miles I had ahead of me, I began to pretend that the miles behind me had never happened. With 4 miles ahead of me, I thought "this'll just be like taking a spin up to the town green." Suddenly we were down to 3 miles, then 2 miles, and then just 1, and then before I knew it, I was crossing the finish line. It felt fabulous!

Somewhere near the end, as expected, the first-place marathoner passed me. However, as I was watching coverage of the race later, I found that he finished the race between 2:18 and 2:19. I finished in 2:17:48 (your clock doesn't start running until you cross the starting line, and with several thousand others running, it takes a few minutes to get there). My new goal for any half marathons moving forward is to finish with a better time than the first place marathoner. ;)

As I was nearing the end, I remember thinking there is no way - and I mean NO WAY - I could ever do a full marathon. I seem to remember thinking this before...

As it stands, though, I know I COULD. I could work at it and get there. I think I would actually like to do it someday. However, it was hard enough just finding the time to train for the half. Daylight and childcare don't collide often in my world. When both kids are in elementary school, perhaps it's on. For now, though, I am going to stick to halfs (halves?). I need to find another one to do in the next couple months because it feels odd running with no real end goal (although continuing to fit into my wardrobe of running clothes is quite compelling).

So anyway, I am now one of THOSE people. Because, you know, if it's not plastered obnoxiously on your car, it never really happened: