I heart White Cheddar Cheez-Its: 2 hours, 49 minutes, 19 seconds

"I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)

I did it! I completed my first 1/2 Marathon! And what an experience it was!

Andrea and I left for San Antonio a little after noon on Saturday. We headed to the Fitness Expo and met up with Dre and Laura to pick up our packets and do a little exploring. From there, we ventured to Andrea's Uncle John's house where we were spending the night. I met up with my parents, cousin Amy, her husband Steve, and their daughters Rachel, Stephanie and Valerie at Jacala for some tasty Mexican food for dinner. I have always referred to Rachel, Stephanie, and Valerie as my "hellian" cousins. They were quite the handful and troublemakers when they were younger! It's hard to believe that Valerie is now in college and the twins are looking at colleges. After dinner I found myself exhausted and was in bed at 9 pm! I had anticipated that it would be difficult for me to get a good night's rest because of nerves, but that was definitely not the case!

We were up at 5:30 am on Sunday to get ready and eat breakfast before the race. Andrea's sweet Uncle John prepared our breakfast of strawberries, bagels with cream cheese, bananas, and yogurt. Naturally, we were running late so we had to take it with us in the car. And of course, me being the clumsiest person in the world, had to trip down the stairs in the garage while carrying my breakfast to the car. I'm not going to lie, it was a bad fall. I felt something pull in my ankle and it took me a few seconds to be able to stand up. However, I wasn't going to allow a last second injury keep me from running this race!

John dropped us off at the race and we arrived at our Corral a little after 7 and found our friends Dre, Laura and Heidi. It was a freezing 34 degrees outside! The race started at 7:30, but it was a little after 8 before we made our way to the starting line. They placed everyone in Corrals and then released a corral every minute and a half to two minutes to ensure that the course didn't become too crowded, because that was definitely a possibility with 30,000 runners in the race.
Laura and I had paced together during the Human Race and found that we ran well together, so we did the same during this race. We let the rockstars Andrea, Dre, and Heidi run ahead of us. The course was really flat, which was awesome. There was a slight hill around mile 3 1/2 and then a large hill right at the end (talk about unfair) at mile 13. Every time we would get to a mile marker I'd get really excited about how fast it was all going by. We did well at the beginning and only walked while we drank our water at the water stops, but after about mile 5 Laura's foot started to hurt (crazily enough, my injury seemed fine and wasn't bothering me). We had to stop a few times to let her take her weight off of it and walked a little ways before she finally made me go ahead of her around mile 10.

Everyone always tells you to "finish strong" at a race, and I've never really understood that statement before now. On any of my long runs I have had to push myself towards the end and have found my energy lacking. This was not the case yesterday. I somehow found a new motivation the last few miles and ran faster and stronger than I had the entire race! It was such an exhilarating feeling to begin passing everyone who had started to walk the last few miles. It also helped that through out the race the crowd was so amazing and motivating. You don't realize how much of an effect complete strangers can have on you while you're running and they're cheering for you. The bands stationed every 1/2 to full mile also made the race go by quickly.

I crossed the finish line with a time of 2 hours, 49 minutes, and 19 seconds, which I am pleased with. It wasn't the rock star time of Andrea at 2 hours and 13 minutes, but I finished and I ran this race, and that is an accomplishment not to blush at! As I turned the corner I was welcomed by the bright, smiling faces of my Mommy and Daddy. It was so great to have them there! I got a hug and a kiss on the cheek (to which my mom made the comment that I tasted like salt) and I headed back to meet them.

While my parents were on their way to meet me they saw an old, familiar face... Virginia Wallace! Virginia and my mom taught together at Diboll when I was in grade school, and she had kids around our age. Her daughter Korie, who is a year older than me, also ran the 1/2 marathon and it was also her first race. Her brother Travis was also there because his fiancee was running as well. It was good to see them and catch up a little. I seriously was just thinking about them a few weeks ago when I was going through old photos and came across a picture from one of mine and Jay's birthday parties. And it just goes to show just how small of a world it really is... I always see at least one random person I know at a race!

After we met up with my racing buddies, my parents took Andrea and I back to her Uncle's house but not before stopping for a yummy lunch at Olive Garden. We finally arrived back in Austin around 4:15 and I had just enough time to get ready for our Post-1/2 Marathon celebration at Trudy's. I'm so thankful for our wonderful friends who showed up to congratulate us and who also braved the cold of the patio at Trudy's since our party was so large (we had close to 20 people there, it was probably a good thing that not everyone showed up!). After dinner Andrea and I met up with two of our former co-workers Marissa and Courtney for drinks at Sherlock's... it was so good to see them and catch up, it's been way too long since we all got together.

I woke up this morning and my ankle was sore (surprisingly nothing else was with my lack of stretching before and after the race). I went to see the Capitol nurse and he agreed with my self-diagnosis: I have a slight sprain. It's not swollen and I don't limp when I walk, but there is definitely a continuous feeling of pain in my foot. I am going to lay off the running this week and ice it and take aleve for the pain, and hopefully I will heal quickly!

I have to say thank you to all of my family and friends who have been so incredibly supportive while I've trained for this race. Your encouraging words helped to keep me going when I was having doubts. I am so lucky to have such wonderful support in my life! I apologize for the length of this blog, but I knew that inquiring minds would want to know all of the details! I am going to leave you with some pictures from the weekend and another Bible verse that I saw along the course that helped to keep me motivated.

"But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings of eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (Isaiah 40:31)