The Winner

 When I was a kid I read a series a books called The Gymnasts.  My favorite was the one called The Winner.  One of the characters, Cyndi, wins a medal and in the last chapter she debates about wearing it to a party.  In the end she decides not to wear it because she doesn't want to brag about winning.  Is it weird that I want to wear my 1/2 marathon medal EVERYWHERE?  Ok, not really, but I am so super proud of this thing I don't even know where to start.  Yes, I know that everyone who finishes gets one but that's the whole point.  I finished!!

I initially decided to run the 1/2 as a present to Peter for Christmas.  I told him almost immediately because I didn't want to chicken out.  I mean, in August of 2009 the farthest I could run was from here to the kitchen to get a snack.  Before I became  pregnant I managed to build up to a 5K but I never did a race and I didn't run during my pregnancy.  I started running again in November and ran about 4 or 5 times before Christmas.  I'm not sure what I was thinking, it was probably leftover pregnancy hormones, but for some reason I thought it would be good idea for my post-pregnant self to do an official race.  So why not start with a 1/2 marathon?

I began traning in early February and honestly I have to say that until I started running on Saturday I was never sure if I would make it.  I hated training.  It was hot, sweaty and took way too much of my time.  Plus when I started I was running 17 plus minute miles.  If you multiply 17 x 13 you get a really big number, which is the number of minutes of hot, sweaty, agony facing me in the upcoming race.  I wrote a few weeks ago about this and received some awesome advice and so I started trying the run/walk method.  My method?  Run for 3 songs and walk for 1.  My average for the race was 13:01 giving me an overall time of 3:00:48.  My goal was to get under 3 hours and I'm pretty sure my little potty break behind a tree added the extra 48 seconds.  Regardless I was SUPER happy!!

The race really was awesome.  I can't say that I love running, but I REALLY like running in a race.  I ran the Derby 1/2 Marathon in my home state of Kentucky.  The course was flat, the weather was perfect and to top it off we got to run through Churchill Downs.  There were even some horses out exercising.  Peter met me at miles 5 and 11 and then at the finish.  I ran past our Bed & Breakfast so he cheered me on at mile 5, ate a nice hearty breakfast, and then met up with me again at mile 11 (just a couple of blocks away on his path, 6 miles on mine!).  My parents, Stafford and Peter all met me at the finish.  It was such a great moment!  You can see how happy I am in the pictures below.

I'm not sure what my running future holds but you just might see me sporting my mini-marathon medal as my jewelry of choice sometime soon!

Mile 5-still feeling good at this point

About 100 feet from the finish line--SO happy!!

Ahh...there's that medal!  And my awesome parents!

My two biggest fans!!