13.1

I did it! I finished my very first half marathon today. Whew! That was sure something. Woke up at 5 am to the sound of rain, thunder and lightening. I went ahead and got ready and headed out just in case it slowed down. It didn't. Ran the whole 13.1 in a downpour. Torrential at times.  It would have been funny if it didn't suck so much. Actually it didn't suck, it was awesome. Running along with some 1500 other people that came out to run in the rain was awesome and an experience I won't soon forget. By mile marker three I was soaking wet from head to toe and the shoes were sloshing. I thought the iPod would drown but it kept on trucking. I kept on truckin' too! I ran the whole darn thing.  I didn't walk at all. I surprised myself even. It's good to surprise yourself once and awhile. Prove to yourself you can do stuff you didn't think you could do.

This was a fitting end to a year of running. A year ago I bought a treadmill with the sole desire to try and run one mile without stopping.  After several weeks I was able to do that, so I challenged myself to run two miles and so forth. Treadmill running lead to road running and my first 5K last October. Along the way 18 pounds came off which was a welcome side effect. All in all this was a life changing year and today was no exception. Thank you to my awesome husband, Father in law, kids and parents for braving the nasty weather to come watch me cross that finish line. It was sure nice to see people cheering you on at the end. Hmm what's next, perhaps a full marathon is in the future. The distant future!

Official time: 2 hours 13 minutes Woo Hoo!

 I ran with Hubby's phone that has a running app on it. Kind of forgot to stop it so the time isn't correct.  Check out the calorie burnt box in the upper right hand corner. That's nearly 1600 calories baby! Really didn't feel bad about stuffing my face with pancakes after the race.