The Big Race....

Ok this post is most defintitely for Sarah and yes it is like almost 4 months behind!!!!  DON'T KILL ME! - Oh yeah........most of ya can't!

Ok onto THE RACE!

So in all of my other craziness, I decided (or maybe it was sort of decided for me....) that I wanted to run a half marathon at some time in my life.  Considering that my Father-in-law and Sister-in-law and her friend have run this one consistent half for the past couple of years, it was decided we were all going to do it together!  Perfect- could get my little goal out of the way and have some fun in the meantime!!! (ok wait.....do running and fun even go in the same sentence?)

So I started my faithful Hal Higdon running schedule and modified it a little to fit my schedule with Scott and we were off and .......oh yeah - running! Ha!  It took a little finagling on our parts to get it set so that I could run while Scott was home, but basically as soon as he would get home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I would go run and then Saturdays were my LONG run.  Of course in the beginning LONG consits of about 3 miles!  But the final LONG run of the schedule is 10 miles - whew! 

So in the course of the training - I wasn't expecting anything - however I landed with 3 - no wait, 4 new toys/"training necessities"!

1.  A watch that you can set to track how far you've gone (although I still can't figure that part out) but it also has a timer so you can time your self as you go on your route to see how fast you're going. No garmin yet.....(for those of you who are not big runners - DO NOT worry about this part, just start donating to Stephanie and Leahs "Garmin" fund and you will be fine).  

2.  Camel Pak- this was a life saver via my dearest husband! (love that guy!)  I had a trusty water pouch that my F-i-Law had bought me and I used it for forever, but for some reason when I started using it this time, I started putting pressure on one of my knees and every time I ran I thought I was going to die.  (ok - for those of you who are skeptics out there thinking I just staged this so I could get me a cool camel pak - YOU ARE WRONG! - ) So Scott came home one day with Camel pak which is a cool water carrier - sort of like a bakpack that a lot of hikers and some runners wear.  It it really cool.

3.  A "hand-me down" ipod from Scott (wow - Scott was into this huh??)  Yes Sarah and Leah - I finally got me an ipod and boy howdy it was a life saver.  Those long runs especially!

4. And finally (one of my favorites) a running skirt from my Mother-in-law.  This one just came by chance! I had been looking for one and hadn't been able to get one (because if any of you looked at the link you will see that they are quite expensive) but she just happened to have one that she used while she goes walking and she just so happened to have pity on me! Is that some awesome Mother-in-"loving" (thanks Patti!) or what???

Well - now the big race day!  July 4th - on Saouvi Island (and yes for those of you with a calendar in front of you - that did happen to fall on a Sunday - don't kill me- that race is run on the 4th every year and it just so happened to fall on a Sunday this year!) It was a gorgeous day - not too hot etc.  Of course having to get up at 4 am was not so "hot" but that's what it took and even getting up that early - we barely got there in time cuz - it's an island - .......which means there is one way on the island and one way off the island.  Guess everyone was coming on at the same time.......hmmmmmmmmmm.......ANYWAY!  We got to the starting line and had enough time to hit the bathroom and have about one minute to do high fives and good lucks and we'll see you at the ends and we were off.  Got my tunes rocking, got my watch going and got stuck in the middle of the pack - and the first mile just whizzed by!

Skip to the end cuz I KNOW y'all don't want to hear all the details of the race besides......it was a beautiful place to run AND there were NO hills - even better!

Got to that last little leg and was just hoping I would see an encouraging face - Scott and his mom and Aunty were bringing the kids to cheer us all on at the finish line.  Can you believe........I finished about 3 minutes before they got to the finish line! So no cheering, no whoo hoos - but inside I was pretty excited.  Got my water and my medal and went searching.  Of course they weren't expecting me to come from the opposite way so they were all looking for me to finish! 

Needless to say - this is the only picture Scott took of me. Stretching.  Oh well - maybe next time.  I have the option of buying some really good race pictures off the web site so I may do that.  You can go Here to see those photos if you choose.

My sister in law came in next......

....and then my Father in law.  Scott didn't get a picture of Kelly's friend Ginger (sorry Ging!)

Overall - it was a GREAT experience and I would do it all over again!

PS - and for you race junkies my times etc. were:

Finishing time: 1:58:04

Average Mile/Min: 9:00

Came in #65 of 266 in my age division

Came in #615 of 1904 overall

Came in #263 1263 of all the females

Yeah me!!!