13.1

I'm a little behind, but I warned you. I think I have finally caught up on this whole blogging thing. Two weekends ago, I ran the St Jude half. This was my third time to register, second time to run. It got iced out a few years ago. I have been running some, but definitely NOT training like I should have been and long runs were few and far between... Initially my sister and cousins signed up to run with me, but my sister backed out because she hadn't been training and my cousin found out that she was pregnant so she backed out too. And then there was me- and some friends that I knew that were doing it.

Friday after work, I went to the expo and picked up my packet before meeting Hillary at the nailbar for manicures. On the way home, I was starving so I stopped at Chick Fil A. Yep, Chick Fil A was my pre-race meal. So many bad decisions!

I don't usually get race anxiety until I get to the starting line, but I woke up at about 3:45 Saturday morning anxious about the race. Luckily, I was able to go back to sleep for a little while. I woke up around 5 ready to go. Or as ready as I was going to be...

I got dressed, packed a bag with a shirt and shoes to change into afterwards, ate my typical breakfast (toast with peanut butter) and headed downtown. I met up with Sally and we made our way to our corral.

Then we waited around for a while. There were about 2 minutes in between corral starts, so we had some time to waste. There was lots of nervous anticipation.

Then we started. Sally and I ran together for the first 3 or 4 miles before I decided to go ahead. I turned on a podcast once we separated and I just tried to zone out. My initial goal was just to finish. About halfway through, I realized I was actually doing slightly better than I thought I would be.

There were definitely stretches that were harder than others. Things got hard around mile 9. We were running east on Poplar and I kept wondering why we were still going away from the finish line. The thought also went through my head that it would be a shorter distance for me to just run home. But I sucked it up and turned on Madison to finish the course.

My battery was starting to die on my phone around that point, so I turned off the podcast to save some battery. I don't know if that made things better or worse. I just had to listen to my body and how I was feeling. The half and full marathon paths split at mile 11 and I started to get some more energy. Then I met up with another friend at mile 12 which gave me another burst of energy to finish the course.

I finally hit the downhill and ran through the finish line and a old running friend that I haven't seen in a few years was volunteering so she got to give me my medal which was super fun. I met up with Katie and we stretched and drank water and waited for the other girls to finish. It was about 60 degrees and sunny so we just got to bask in the sunlight while we waited. Glorious! We took some finishers pictures before heading up to get some snacks- and pizza!

I think I was more sore after this race than I have been in the past. I don't know if it was the fact that I'm getting older or my lack of training, but I was sore! I came home and took a shower and used my foam roller to work out some of my muscles. Then I crashed on the couch. All day. I took a nap and watched Christmas movies on Lifetime. Just what I needed.