My First Half

May 15, 2010 was the Famous Idaho Potato Marathon. I decided to sign up for the half marathon- 13.1 miles as my goal/motivation to lose more baby weight. As I mentioned in a previous post, I started running the year before I had Kylie and got down to my dream weight, so I figured having this race nearing the future would help me stay motivated in my workouts.

I "trained" for 2 months and completed my longest run of 10 miles a few times during those weeks, and so I felt pretty confident that I could finish the half marathon. I trained by myself as I wasn't sure when I would have the availability to run. Going into the race however, I wished I had a friend or an experienced runner who could give me some pointers and keep me on pace.

Here I am the morning of. Nervous, Anxious - majorly Excited!
At beautiful Ann Morrison Park, the race finish. (And also where we caught the buss to take us to the start line at Lucky Peak). It was FREEZING at first, but I'm glad I wore shorts because as soon as we started, it got hot fast.

While I was running, Dan, Kylie, Jan and Frank were waiting at the finish line for me.

Here's the little beauty hanging out with all the runners and their families....waiting for her Mama.

My cheer squad!

Here are some of the runners heading into the park. After I crossed that bridge (far right) it felt like forever until I made it to my family, and then just a little farther til I reached the finish line.

The final stretch!

Yes! I finished!!! As soon as I stopped running, exhaustion set in and I needed to go to the bathroom immediately. I almost didn't even wait for my medal I needed to get in the potty line so bad. Anyway, my final time was 2:16:45, middle of the pack finish!! (Although my Garmin time was more accurate at 2:15:44 because I started the race at the back of the pack, crossing the start line accordingly.)

So, here I am, in complete exhaustion. I'm dizzy, dehydrated and about to pass out from heat stroke. This is why I would have really loved a trainer for this run because they would have told me to drink water at every station!

Yes this is just a joke, but I almost needed recessitation for real. haha.

And the best reward was holding Kylie while we both sat there in eachothers arms, in pure exhaustion, crying. (It was far past her nap time.) Maybe I wasn't crying on the outside (because my body couldn't produce tears-lol) but I definetly was on the inside.

Dispite the bad couple hours after the race, I had an amazing experience. I pushed myself, felt connected into the sport of running and lost 5lbs. I have officially become addicted to running, and am looking forward to my next race.