I DID IT!!!!

I'm sitting here on the sofa watching NBC's The Biggest Loser.  I also just finished up some ice cream...don't judge!  I'm also on again off again crying.  These shows always get me!  Ha!!

This past weekend I accomplished something that has been on my bucket list for a while.  I started running over 5 years ago.  I've always wanted to run a half marathon and actually did it last year with a great friend.  It was a HORRIBLE first half marathon.  I was so down and disappointed after that run.  I had trained hard (so I thought).  Turned out the running watch I had wasn't working properly.  When I thought I had run 11 miles, WRONG it was only 7 miles.  I didn't realize this until we were in the race running.  It was also so hot, good gracious it was terrible!  I was done after that half marathon...D O N E!  Well I was serious and did not run for 6 months.  Luckily I had some great friends that pulled me out of that funk and got going again!

Fast forward to this past October I was on Pinterest and pinned a training program for a half marathon.  Not thinking much of it, but just tucking it away.  Well that night I got a notification that my friend Elizabeth had commented on it.  She put that she would join me if I was serious about doing it.  Oh my goodness what did I start???  We found a half marathon in DC and had another good friend that lived there that we could stay with and she would do it with us as well.  Then Liz's sister decided she would run with us as well.

We signed up for the Rock N Roll half marathon.  I started really training in December.  I was dragging my feet but FINALLY started.  It was so hard.  I had great girls that would come with me for my Saturday runs.  It was hard giving up my Saturday and Sunday mornings for 2 hours at a time to run.  It was such an amazing feeling every time I reached my new goal.  I was so nervous that I would have an injury or get sick.  I did hurt my big toe which I learned is common but besides that was injury and free of sickness.  Praise!

The week leading up to DC I was on weather.com more than anyone my age should be.  It went from being hot (my worst nightmare) to 70% chance of rain and FREEZING.  Ugh.  We have trained so hard and the weather was messing this up for us! 

Liz came to Greenville and we rode together to DC on Friday morning.  It was so awesome having girl time.  We got to DC in time to pick Marsha up from the airport and meet the other Liz at the packet pick up.  We had a blast picking up or packages.  There were vendors everywhere and it was fun to walk around and get free samples of products.  We didn't get a chance to eat lunch so we ate an early dinner and went to bed early.

Race day we were up at 5:30am and left to go to our race.  The weather was perfect.  No rain and it was chilly.  We all got in our corral and got ready.  There were thirty thousand runners signed up for this race, by far the largest I've ever participated in.  We were finally able to go around 8am.  There were so many hills, oh the hills but it was FUN.  Never ever would I have thought running would be fun but it was.  There were people cheering for us and had drinking stations with beer and vodka set up.  I don't know how people are able to drink alcohol and run...I would vomit.  I ran very slow but I ran the ENTIRE thing.  I was so proud of myself.  It was awesome.  Running is such a humbling experience.  A few people who beat me in the half were a blind woman, a man with one leg and a man juggling while he was running.  Seriously...juggling while he was running.  Crazy.  As I said there was plenty to look at.

After the race we went home and showered and then went and watched a movie at the movies!  I haven't been to the movies in forever.  We also got popcorn...oh the little things!  We had so much fun visiting and laughing together.  Such wonderful friends that I don't know what I would do without.

We all finished the race and had a great time.  We left EARLY Sunday morning and I came back to a wonderful husband and beautiful child that let me take a nap.  How nice was that!  Love them.

Well I will update with some pictures later.