2:05:36 and Proud of it!

It was the Garmin Wickedly Fast Half Marathon in Olathe, Kansas.

  

We didn't go this extreme.  

Mandy, Stacy, and I committed to running this in January with Betsy.  It was especially nice being able to stay with family and be with them. 

I miss Betsy.  I love being able to talk, shop, or just hang out with her.  I'm so glad she's coming to visit in June.

Mandy and Stacy are very close friends.  Like I've said before, Mandy got me into running.  I served with Stacy as she was the past YW President in our ward.  It was such a fun trip!  (More on that in the next post.)

Back to the race.  I've been running consistently since the first of the year.  I trained as best as I could given all of my circumstances.  My goal was to run a half in 2 hours or less.  My previous time of my personal record of a half marathon was in 2008 at the Moab Half Marathon was 2:19.

I know without a doubt that I can do one in 2 hours.  My mind was on board but my body must have not understood.  This race had pacers which meant you could choose a time that you wanted and know where you were at by the people that would carry that time on their sign.  I actually started off with the 1:50 group.  I was good up until mile three.  Then my thigh started cramping and slightly later my left toes started getting Charley horses.  Didn't think it's possible?  It was, trust me.  Before mile 4 I wanted to quit because I was in more pain than I had ever been on in a run.  I had one thing that kept me going.

I fell behind between the 1:50 and 1:55 pacers just after mile 4.  At that point I said a prayer asking for help to just ease the pain and let me finish.  It worked a little but it was still a mental game.  I couldn't get past the mind over body matter.  Then I realized that I didn't matter what Stacy, Betsy, Jacob, or even what Mandy would say if I quit.  I think they would have still been my friend.  I realized that it mattered to me that I didn't quit for the Young Women I'm with back home.  How could I come back and tell them I quit?  That I gave up when it got hard?  This is why I finished.

I stayed at my spot until I absolutely had to go to the bathroom at mile 7.  After that I was in between the 1:55 and 2:00 pace.   It was still a mental game to breathe, get a sip of water, or even try to eat a GU chomp.  At mile ten, the 2 hour pacers passed me.  Just after mile twelve the 2:05 passed.  I realized I wasn't going to let anything else pass by.  I finished with a time of 2:05:36.  (That included my bathroom stop.  Also for the record, the course was just almost .2 more than the normal 13.1 half marathon.  Several mentioned this because they clocked it with their Garmin watches.  It's all over the review page too for the race.  You would think with Garmin being the sponsor that they would double check the distance.  At least I would like to say the course was off because I'm sure Garmin doesn't want to admit that their watches are off.) 

I finished the race, sat down, pulled off my shoe, rubbed my feet, and cried.  I was tired and mentally beat.  I did it though.  Then I put my shoe back on and off I went.

The funnest part was going back and running the last half mile with Stacy, and then going back again and running the last mile with Betsy.  I think when I have somebody to push or inspire that I put aside my own challenges and want them to do better. 

2:05.  I'm ecstatic about my time.  I know it's roughly four minutes longer than what I wanted, but I know how much pain I went through to get that.  It's a personal record for me but my worst run ever.  I'm proud that I endured to the end.  I'm so proud of the girls too!  We all got a personal best.  Mandy finished at 1:34, Stacy with 2:25, and Betsy with 2:50!

I've now set a goal to do a half marathon roughly every three months.  I'm thinking the Timp Half Marathon in Utah at the end of July, the Waddell and Reed in the Middle of October in Kansas City, and the Jingle Bun Run in Temple, TX the first of December.  Bring it On!

Stayed tuned for the fun parts about our trip tomorrow!