The Wall

So Saturday, the 19th, was the half marathon. I was so excited and nervous. My goal was to finish it in 3 hours or less. I think I have said before that I am not a runner by nature. At all. My brother in law, Ryan, was also running it with a friend of his. Ross got up at the crack of dawn with us (4:30 A.M.) to drive us (Ryan, his friend, me and Megan) to the race start. We got there about an hour before race time. It started right at 7. Ryan and his friend took off right away. Megan and I did a run/walk combo that went pretty well for the most part. The people along the route and at the aid stations were the best! They were cheering and carrying on. At about the half way point, I was pretty freaking hot and my asthma kept kicking in. I still was plugging along though. Ross and my mom met us at the bottom of the canyon, just before mile 10, to cheer us on. That was really cool. Just after 10 miles, I hit a wall. Mentally and physically. I literally could not run. I could barely walk. I do not know what was propelling me forward. I knew Megan's family was at the end waiting for her and I knew she still had it in her to run so I told her she could go. She wouldn't. She said we were in it together. She might have been one of the only reasons right then that I didn't stop and just cry. We walked for a long time. Probably a mile and a half. Anyway, we were on the final stretch and I told her I wanted to run the last little bit in. So we jogged to the end and over the finish line. The first people I saw were my mom and my sister and her kids. I ran over there and gave them high fives. They showed me where Ross and the boys were with my in-laws. I ran over and gave everyone hugs and totally started crying. I was so happy to see them, so happy to be finished. I realized that the only reason I had kept going was so Ross and my boys would think I was cool. I think they might have! Ross told me our time was 2 hours and 55 minutes! So we made our goal. It was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But I felt so great about finishing. Ryan ran it in 1 hour and 54 minutes. I was so proud of him. Later that day, he brought me ice cream for doing it. That meant a lot since him and I don't connect a lot of the time. We went to dinner that night with him and Em and our families. I threw down on a steak.

In hindsight, as hard as it was, I would do it again. Only next time, I'll be faster.