Saturday, June 11, 2011

And I Thought it Could Never Be Done!

Back in December I made the decsion that I was going to run a half marathon. Keep in mind the longest distance I had previously run was a 5K. I bought a treadmill (used) and started my preparations. I would run 3 days a week, one of those days would be a longer run. My long runs started at 3 miles and I worked my way up to 10 1/2 miles. When the weather got nicer I started running outdoors (and vowed I would never set foot on the dreadful treadmill again.) A few weeks ago I started having some major pain around my right hip(ish). So a few weeks before the race I thought it best to take it easy. At first that meant still working out but not running. Then when I still wasn't feeling better...lets just say I didn't do any form of exercise the whole week before.
Yesterday (the day before the run) I had one of those days, where I kept saying to myself, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!" I was so emotional. I would start tearing up everytime I even thought about it.
The day of the race: I woke up at 3:00 am to ready myself for a 3:30 am departure. My friend Kelli and her hubby picked me up. We drove to the mall, parked the car and hopped on a bus that took us to the starting line. (I am so thankful to my friend Kelli, not only did she encourage me to run the race in the first place, but she distracted me the whole morning with great conversation so I wouldn't be focused on the torture that awaited me.)

Me, Lesli, Kelli, and Shilo
We got to the starting line at 4:40...the race didn't start till 6:00. So we stood around a campfire trying to stay warm. We ran into some other folks from the ward to help keep us company. And then at 6:00 we were off. The start of the race was great, other then the pain in my hip, I was feeling great. I made it to the halfway point in 1 hour and 4 minutes. (Which is excellent time for me.) But then it got harder to keep running. At the 8 miles point I grabbed some gatorade at a refresment station and it made me so thirsty, those next 2 miles were horrible. I just wanted some water so badly. At about mile 11, I felt like I wanted to burst into tears and just sit down in the middle of the road. But of course I didn't and I kept "running."

 This is me about to finish. I know it's not pretty!
I finished the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 33 minutes. The last half was much slower then the first. As a matter of fact 1473 people finished the half marathon before me, and 4 insane people fisnished the full marathon before I finished the half. But I did it! I set a goal and I reached it. 

 Here I am after eating myself a creamie.
Me with the kiddos.
After it was all done I of course was in pain, so I came home and took some Advil and a nap. Now I am showered and...still in pain. Hopefully I will be fine by Monday morning, because its YW Camp!
Already several people have asked if I would do it again, I'm not sure if I can answer that one just yet. The training is so time consuming and with the kids still being young, it is really hard to find the time to properly train. But maybe next  year I'll have forgotten about the torture I just went through. You never know.

5 comments:

Rachel said...

Wow, congratulations! That is quite an accomplishment. Good for you!

P.S. When someone asks if you are going to do it again, it's like someone asking when you're going to have the next baby when you've just pushed the dang baby out! Probably NO! NEVER :)

Andrea said...

You are a rock star and my idol! A job well done!

Travis and Megan Liston said...

Way to go Audrey! That is awesome! You did amazing! -Megan

Amara said...

I'm so proud of you! I swear it's as much an emotional/mental goal as it is a physical one. You've now become a much tougher person than you were!

Chiadeb said...

Very proud of you Audrey! I thought you hated running though. I would vote "no" to next year.