I FREAKIN' DID IT!!

I ran my 2nd Half Marathon this year and did a personal best! (If you run 2 half marathons in the same year does that count as a full marathon?!) The day started off with my alarm going off at 5:30am and finding this noteand then heading out to meet a group of great runner girls at Denise's house at 5:45am to carpool together to the race. Stephanie, Amber, Jenny, Denise, Me, Jenesey and RachelStephanie, Denise and I had this great game plan of running the first 7 miles together and then splitting up after that and haulin' butt to the finish. Well, it was a great plan for the first 2 miles but then after that we all turned on our ipods and were in our own zone.It was nice to have 13 miles to myself and my thoughts. I became grateful for so many dumb things. I was grateful for the fact that everyone running by me was wearing headphones so no one could hear how loud I was breathing, I was grateful for the rain that fell on us until it made the sweat run into my eyes, I was grateful for the port-a-potty at mile 8 so I could stop and pee for a second, I was grateful for Denise running back and handing me a magical jelly belly, I was grateful for the people handing out waters, powerade and vitamin waters at the water station and I was especially grateful for the band Muse and their song Uprising to get me through the last mile when I wanted to stop and walk. I have to say I really enjoyed running this race. The paved roads and sidewalks were a welcomed surprise from the tractor tracks of Queen Creek, my fancy watch the Pro Spirit 999 was fantastic (aka: the Target Pro Spirit $9.99 - not the really cool Garmin watches that all my friends have) at helping me keep on pace and just the fact that I met all the goals I made for myself; I wanted to run the whole thing, done, and I wanted to keep at a 10 minute pace and I maintained a 9:29 pace, woo hoo! I was able to shave 23 minutes and 46 seconds off of my last race, finishing up at 2 hours 4 minutes and 11 seconds. I ended up being faster than I thought so between that and the traffic to get into the stadium, Jared didn't even make it to see me finish. I didn't get mad though because I knew he tried and already had a busy morning getting up the 4 kiddos and getting them ready to take them to my parents house to be babysit and all my friends made up for him not being there by waiting for me at the finish line and cheering me on.Denise was so nice to be a good friend and grab me a bottle of water right when it was over and try to help me even though I was about to truly puke my guts up. If I could have found a trash can I would have. It was a great race and I look forward to running again and beating my time again. Jared surprised me that night by getting his mom to come over and babysit while he took me out to a victory celebration dinner!