again, i say 'rejoice!': we did it.

At the crack of dawn on Sunday, my running buddies and I met up to drive downtown with our hubbies for the Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon! {Of course, it was also the first day of Daylight Savings Time, so we lost even another hour of sleep!} The story goes a little like this:

On the Thursday before the race, I started feeling a little 'tickle' in my chest. My first thought was, "oh no - I'm coming down with something" so I loaded up on all the medication I could find to kick it before it even started. Well - it didn't happen. I DID come down with a nasty chest cold.... in a matter of 24 hours. I told the Hubbs that I would walk the entire thing if I had to... I had not come this far to quit - no matter what the circumstances.

So - on Saturday, amidst my terrible cough, Julie, Joanna and I trucked it downtown to the Convention Center to pick up our race packets - and experience what is known as the "Fitness Expo". Wow.... what an experience!! So many people... so many free samples! We kept looking at each other and saying, "are we really here? are we really going to do this?" I do have to say that throughout our training, we each thought that there would come a point where we'd give up. BUT WE DIDN'T! The point here is that if we can do it, ANYONE can do it. We're not exaggerating when we say that!

After the expo, we met up with our hubbies and Kaytie and Josh {Kaytie was also running in the race - just a bit ahead of us :) } for a yummy pasta dinner at Maggiano's. Yum Yum. We met at 5:30 and we all had the goal of being in bed by 8:30. NONE of us slept well though {including my hubby} because we were concerned that the time change wouldn't kick in on our alarms and we'd miss the race!!! Wouldn't that be awful?

Sunday finally arrived. It was pitch black when we left the house... bagel, banana and coffee in my hand, we headed to meet Joanna and Julie. The Husbands dropped us off at the starting point around 7, I took a swig of my cough syrup and we headed into McDonalds for one last potty stop. {We weren't about to go in a port-a-potty when there was a perfectly 'sanitary' and warm potty to go to}. Turns out we weren't the only ones with that idea! We waited 35 minutes for the potty. In line, we met some other girls that were running for the first time too. They kept asking "are we crazy to think we can do this?" We could only laugh - because we were thinking the same thing!!

8:00 rolls around... the first wave starts. We slowly, I repeat SLOWLY, move up to the start. I think we finally started around 8:25. The first two miles, my chest hurt pretty bad, then we saw my parents, they cheered loudly for us, and we pushed forward. It warmed up pretty quickly and the first time I even thought about feeling tired was around mile 7. I walked through a water stop, just a few steps so I could get some good water, and started running again... feeling much better. Then the next thing I know, we see our hubbies and a big purple sheet that had "RUN RUN RUN" spray painted on it, hanging from a truck bed on Mockingbird. What a pick-me-up!

The next wall I hit was around mile 10.... and it was really me thinking that I needed some water to cool down... and there wasn't another water station until mile 11.5! After I got my water, I felt great - and finished strong! We finished in 2 hours 31 minutes.... an 11:31 pace. {Although my watch told me it was 2 hours 29 minutes and an 11:27 pace - which I like to go with}.

I could NOT have done this without my running buddies.... or without the incredible support of The Hubbs. He encouraged me when I was sore or feeling overwhelmed by a 10 mile run on a Saturday morning. He's in for the next one, by the way. The atmosphere was so fun on this one... not that I have anything to compare it too! :)

Enjoy the pictures!

before the race. before the crack of dawn.