13.1

After 4 months of training, I ran the Cleveland half marathon with 2 friends, Emily and Courtney. Overall, it was a lot of fun. The crowd was amazing, the volunteers and people cheering us on were so encouraging and the weather was perfect. We (I) struggled at the end, but we made it.

We turned the race into a huge celebration. We started Saturday night with a carbo load party at Emilys. Her roommates cooked us a pasta feast. We hung out with family and friends and had a great night relaxing and preparing for the big day. Emilys roommates volunteered at the race to support the runners with some music. Here is a sample of what the runners were treated to:

We had an early start to race day. The alarm went off at 5am, but we were too excited to be tired. We drove down together and took in the sights of 15,000 runners and all the supporters.

Potty row.

We each wore a Bible verse on our back. Mine was Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

The crowd in front of us before the race. The blue banner in the distance is the start line.

Pacers were stationed through out the crowd and we lined up based on our projected end times. They let the hard core runners start first then the rest of the group. We didn't get to the start line until 7 minutes after the start of the race and we were definitely closer to the front than the back. The first mile was crowded. We passed a lot of walkers and slower runners. By the second mile we were in the groove. The adrenaline was pumping and we felt better than we had in a long time. Friends from church were stationed around mile 6. Jon, the boys and my parents were at mile 7.5 and not too far from them were some friends of Emily. It was so nice to see familiar faces. It really made a difference in our energy level. We went through downtown, Ohio City, Treemont, Edgewater and back downtown. People lined the streets to cheer us on. Bands played, music blared. There were dancers, drum lines and a few characters along the way.

By mile 10, I was getting REALLY tired. The end of mile 10 was uphill as well as most of mile 11. I don't know what they were thinking, but who ever came up with that route should be fired! After all the uphill, I was REALLY, REALLY tired. Emily was a great encouragement though and she helped pull me through. Knowing that my family was at the finish line was also a huge motivation to get it done.

We did it!

We ran 13.1miles with out passing out, requiring medical intervention or having to crawl across the finish line. We ended the day with a promise kept by Jon. We headed up to Mongolian BBQ with more friends and replenished all those calories we burned. I'm sore and exhausted, but I'm so glad I did it. Next up: Chicago marathon 2011!!

Dinner at Mongolian BBQ.

Thank you to my hubby for rearranging our schedule to accommodate all the week day runs and for giving up weekend time for all the long runs and recovery time. You're the best!