Well its over. I accomplished my goal, and I ran a half marathon this past Saturday. Here I am in all my glory just before I passed the chick in the blue, and sprinted to the finish line with the chick in the tank top (it was awesome, we were both laughing when we crossed the finish line because we realized that we were both trying to pass each other. We ended up with the same exact time).
(I feel like I look really goofy in that picture. He just so happened to take it right as I was about to start sprinting to the finish line. I look like the hunchback of Notre Dame or something!)My original goal was to finish by 2 and a half hours. When it started getting closer to race day I secretly decided that I wanted to keep a 10 minute mile pace which would have me finishing around 2:10-2:15. I was in the front before the race started but as soon as it started like 250 people flew past me and I felt a little foolish and wondered what I had gotten myself into. Around mile 4 is when I started passing people. At mile 7 I remembered that I had my phone with me, so I checked it to see what my time was thus far. I was running about 8 minutes faster than I thought! I was excited so I sped up a little more and by mile 9 I decided that I wanted to finish in under 2 hours. I DID IT! My time was 1:58. I kept a 9 minute mile pace.
It was such a great experience. If you have never heard of Londons Run before I highly recommend you reading up on it here. Before the race they introduced all of the past sponsored families, and the 2 families they sponsored this year. London's mom spoke and had everyone in tears. Throughout the course some of the families put pictures of their children up with encouraging words for all the runners. I felt so incredibly blessed. There are so many children out there who are fighting each day to rid their body's of pain. I am so thankful that I am healthy and can contribute to them in some way. I am thankful to have a healthy husband and healthy children. It sounds weird to say, but I felt the spirit so strong while I was running. Compared to the challenges that these children have faced, running is nothing.
Anyway, while I was off running, they had plenty to do at Schnepf Farms. My parent's, Grammy, and Heidi were kind enough to come and support me along with my wonderful hubby and kids. Here are a few pictures of some of the things the kids got to do while they were waiting for me.
Heidi and Blake sliding down the ginormous blow up slide. Can you tell that Heidi was having just as much fun as the kids?
Heidi and Kade
Daddy and the boys checkin' out the Mesa Police Helicopter. They also had a cop car, a petting zoo, more bouncy blow up things, tons of food, and tons of different booths to buy stuff.
All in all it was a great day and I am super glad I did it. I am now kinda feelin like I might want to do a full marathon.....someday. :)
