Half Marathon Complete!

It was an adventure...the whole time!

Ever seen those free Auction magazines at gas stations?  If you have a boy (or two) grab a copy (or two) when you go!  At least 30 minutes of entertainment can be had.  

Here it is!  We finished.

I'm so proud of my hubby.  This was his first half marathon and really his 2nd true road race.  He did great.  I think he is a little disappointed he didn't meet his goal (he came so close) but it was a good experience for him.  He definitely loves to run fast and so he thinks 10Ks are more his thing.

At mile 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and the finish I said I would never do another.  Then, I met my goal.  I finished under 2 hours and 30 minutes.  Now, a day later I will probably run another.  The wall at mile 8 is brutal.  The rest of the race after that is all mental.  Luckily the elite and leaders for the marathon race joined up with us around then and I got a boost from watching these superior athletes pass me (and the were at mile 20 or so!)!

I'm proud of all of us for getting this done.  It wasn't so much finishing that makes me proud as it was training for it.  It was a lot of work for us to get our schedules together and both train for it.  Most days one of us was running while the other got ready and watched the kids.  Then we'd switch.  I was running 2+ hours on Sundays for a few weeks.  That took a lot of time away from our family.  It took a lot of communication for us to get our runs in.  

The dome!  We ran into the dome and got to watch ourselves finish on the big screen.

Here we are...All of our running buddies finished- 3 friends from seminary who ran the half and my high school friend who is actually a marathoner!

Next up...I'm running a 4 miler in June.  I will probably try to get one more race in before October when I'm sure we'll run the Oktoberfest 10K again.  I'm happy that I will have to train less and already have a great base.  My goal now is to work on a little bit of weight training.  I feel my upper body could be stronger and my abs need some attention after two children!

So today, I'm going to relish in the fact that I finished and probably not run until at least Wednesday!

A little shout out to the Fargo Marathon and all of the volunteers!  It was ranked best value and one of the Top Ten in Runner's World 2010 Marathon Guide!