The finish line

The Memorial Marathon was a few days ago and I've had some time to reflect and soak in all that it was. While I haven't kept up with my new years resolution of putting up the clothes I wear every day, I did complete the goal of running a half marathon.

 It started with a super early morning. Heather came to pick me up and we headed downtown. We waited in the corral about 30 minutes before the line started moving up to the starting line.

 It was very exciting with the sun rising, and being surrounded by thousands of people. The first three miles were great. I was thinking "if I feel like this the whole time, this will be easy!" My sister and cousin Hayli were around mile 1.5. It was exciting to see them. There are so many people that volunteer, play music, and people that come out to encourage and cheer that make the atmosphere of the race really fun. Miles 3-6 were a little harder, but not bad. Miles 7-8 got much harder, but I knew my friend Beth was waiting around 8 so I pushed on. From there until mile 13.1 I had a really hard time. It began to rain, which was actually nice with as hot as I was. We had planned to run from mile 10-13.1 without stopping but I had to keep stopping to walk. With the humidity I felt like I couldn't breathe, which is important while running. It definitely came a mental thing at the end. I knew I could finish, but my mind was getting filled with how tired I was and ready to stop. Finally we turned a corner, and eventually the finish line came into view.

 We made it across the finish line, through the corral, and to the carl's junior burgers waiting at the end!! Hooray!

One of my favorite quotes is from the movie A league of their own, oddly enough. Dottie says to Jimmy, "It just got too hard". And he says, "Its supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard... is what makes it great."

And I've found that's true with some of the hard things in life I've done. All of the work, effort, struggle, sacrifice is worth it in the end.  I'm grateful to Michael for supporting me for the hours it took to train for the race, to Beth, Hayli, and my sister for being there along the race course and cheering me on- it meant the WORLD to me, and for Heather for partnering with me over the last couple of months to train and run the race;  Your positivity, perseverance, and encouragement helped make this goal actually happen for me! 

My quads were incredibly sore Monday and today, but getting better. I'm looking forward to doing some short runs soon.