1, 2...13.1

Well...here is the scoop on my half-marathon (13.1 miles). I have been training to run for the last six months and my goal was to finish in under 2 hours, 45 minutes and to complete it without stopping. However, I ended up have a little more than the 13.1 miles against me. We had to wake up at 2:45 am to get ready to go...however I was up every 15-20 minutes, all night with digestive issues (to put it nicely) from my nerves. I ended up having to run on an empty stomach, since nothing would stay down, much less go down. I was able to keep down about half an apple...not really the carbs I needed for prolonged energy. I was really nauseas all morning, but once I started running I felt unbelievable energetic...for the first four miles. It was pretty much all downhill from there. I was completely out of gas by mile 5 and had to take little walking breaks to be able to keep going. All in all, my final chip time was 2:45:21...I finished just 21 seconds past my goal! Being a runner with about 17,000 other people was a pretty cool feeling. When I would get tired, I would just look around and there were runners as far as I could see in front and behind me. It was a great experience that I definitely want to try again! Just not one I have to get so early for :) Special shout out of THANKS to our awesome cheerleaders Grace and my wonderfully awesome Hubby!! They were able to watch us run by at miles 3 and 7...I would tear up seeing them in the crowd. It meant the world to me and Joy that you were there!!!

My fun race factoid: I placed 6,421 out of the 13,107 runners that finished!