Finishing the Race

I have one word to describe how I feel today. SORE! Yesterday, my friend Emily and I accomplished a huge goal. We ran our first half marathon. It was an incredible experience, and I am so glad I did it. This year has not gone as planned, and most of the training I was supposed to do, did not happen.

When I got to the race yesterday, I was terrified of the unknown. I wasn’t sure how I would do or how my body would handle the physical part of the long run. About three miles in, I was feeling pretty good and was trucking along. We ran as much as we could until we got to the hills (there were so many hills), and then we would walk a little. At mile ten, I started feeling the effects of the physicalness of the race. My legs were hurting, my foot was hurting, and my head was hurting. I just kept using my mantra; I can do all things through Christ and kept pushing myself. When we got to the last couple of miles, I was so tired! I was walking more than I should have been and was about ready to give up, but I knew I only had a little more to go. I popped an energy gel in my mouth (not tasty at all) and started running again.

The last mile was so hard. It was a very long road that leads to a parking area where the finish line was. This road had hills like no other, and the closer I got to the finish line, the more I thought I would collapse. Thank God for my friend Emily. She looked at me at one point and said, come on girl! We got this, run to the finish line, and I said you go ahead, my legs are hurting; I will see you at the end, but when I saw her running towards the finish line, it inspired me to run too. I took off and ran as hard as I could until I completed the race. That was the most exhilarating moment! I knew I had finished something huge, and I was so proud of myself.

I proudly wore my medal around my neck until I got home. I wanted people to know what I had accomplished. Today, I still feel that proudness, along with the aches and pains. For anyone thinking about running a half marathon, I say go for it! It is the most challenging and mental thing I have done since childbirth, but I would do it again to feel the exhilaration at the end. Who knows, maybe one day I will convince myself to try a marathon-or maybe not.