To start out: my most recent little accomplishment. As pretty much everyone I've encountered over the last few weeks knows, I finally ran my first "official" half marathon! A half marathon is 13.1 miles, and while I've gone that far in training runs before, I've never had it officially timed-- or, more importantly, gotten the t-shirt and medal that come with most races! Anything for a free t-shirt, right?? So when I asked Jen and Frank's friend Shad about what runs he'd be doing over the weekend, and he told me about a race in the Wichita Mountains, I was more than game!
The race was the "Spirit of Survival" marathon and half marathon and was held in Oklahoma in Medicine Park. All the proceeds benefitted cancer research-- definitely a cause worth running for! My very amazing sister woke up at the butt-crack of dawn so that we could leave by 5:30 am... the drive wasn't very far, but I was worried that if I injured myself I wouldn't be able to get home! Plus, Jen, being the awesome sister she is, wanted to see me cross the finish line :)
Anyhow, here are a few pics from that cold, rainy morning. My goal was to finish in under 2 hours-- I hit it at 2 hours, 1 minute! DANG! Not going to lie though-- I'm still pretty proud. It was more of a mental battle than anything, and the last mile was a torturous uphill climb! (But hey, anything for a t-shirt, remember?)
Pinning on my number! We'd had to stop on the way to buy a "throw away" hat since it was raining... it was pretty fun to throw off a perfectly good piece of clothing, never to see it again, just because I was tired of wearing it!
I'm to the right of the freakishly tall man. Yep, that's a mini fanny pack! Had to keep my inhaler handy :)
Crossing the finish line! .... finally.
And last, with my finisher's medal and "space jacket," as Ryan called it-- they give you metallic capes at the end of most races to keep your body heat in while you cool down.And here is the link to the official race pictures-- not very flattering, but I'd been running in the rain for two hours, so cut me a break here :) And notice the grin on my face-- dang, I was happy to be done!
http://www.backprint.com/go.asp?60853224
