I did it!

This one is real old, but this is when the problem began and I wasn't able to post, so it goes back to May....Here I am (not sure where exactly) with a couple thousand other people getting ready for the big race, 7am Sunday May 15, the Cellcom Marathon and Half Marathon. The weather was sunny. From the picture you'd think it was great, but there was a nasty nasty wind. June 2009 I ran my first organized race of any distance, a 10K, about 6 miles, and I had more energy at the end and wondered of I could ever do a half marathon, 13.1 miles. We had a baby last year, so I wasn't doing anything runningwise. And this past fall I had toe surgery, ended up with some bad infections and hadn't exercised for 4 months, and used this race to help get myself back on the exercise wagon. I'm not one to pay for something and not follow though. The training calendar that I followed wasn't too too much of a commitment, running 3x a week and swimming once. The long runs were Saturday, so it was manageable with work and the little ones. So the training began.

Here I am in the purple, waving at the family, I'm behind the woman in red. This was about mile 4. I'm super glad that my dad and deb, as well as Adam and the kids could come and watch me accomplish this goal of mine. I decided to run with a pacer, to help me catch my goal time of 2:15. I am glad that I did. I stopped to use the restroom at mile 2, then spent the next mile trying to catch them. Then at mile 5 I had to stop and take off a layer, and spent the next mile trying to catch them and at mile 6 I got head of them, but never saw them pass, so I figured I would be right on track.

Coming up on Mile 10. Feeling good, I made a new friend on the course, the guy next to me, we had been pacing off each other since mile 5 and around mile 9 we started talking, Daniel Schumacher, (small world) happens to be from Kohler, has cousins that I went to high school with back in Sheboygan, his mom lives there currently and he actually lived there after college too, and he went to college with my good friend Heather Dunn, knows her husband from work. So we passed the time of the last 3 miles chit chatting. That last mile 1.5 miles was a killer! I'm not sure if it was the chat or the crazy wind that we dealt with around mile 8.5 and then again during the last mile.

Here I am crossing the finish line, looks like 2 people behind the guy in yellow. I did it! When I caught up to my dad afterwards, he said you looked disappointed at the finish. I had two goals from the start of my training, I wanted to run the race and I wanted to finish under 2:16.27 (that was the average finishing time last year and I thought - I can be average). When I came around the bend, it said 2:18, I was so close! But come to find out, that was the gun time. My chip time was 2:15.46! I did it! I was so happy! And what an accomplishment. I trained for 18 weeks, committed to my runs on my treadmill in the basement watching my tv shows; Friends season 8 and 9 and I got hooked on Glee. Not many people like the treadmill, it was my friend. While the kids napped, there I was jogging away....But I worked hard and I am proud of myself.

Next.....I think I'll sign up for the Fox Cities Half Marathon in Appleton on September 18, our 7th anniversary actually and see if I can't better my time, under 2:10. and then the big one....I talked my brother into doing a full marathon next May, the Big Surr Marathon. Might as well get it crossed off the list....

Hold the phone...I couldn't post this on Monday, something was wrong with the site, but they marked the course incorrectly- I know hard to believe a race at that level would do that- but just after mile 3 we all ran an extra ..800ft about .15 of a mile. So they had some fancy number of .9886 that they multiplied our times by and everyone did better. So my official time is 2:14:14.