1st Half Marathon

Challenge accepted and achieved! On September 28th, 2013, my best friend, Whitney Pinkston and I conquered our first half marathon. Having trained for twenty weeks we were confident in our physical ability to make it through but I still struggled mentally. Some words of encouragement from a good friend and bed time prayers eased my mind the night before as well as a good meal.

We ate like Queens the night before! Bread, pasta, and salad! We started with bread and salad...when our pasta came we could only take a few bites because we were so full; all for the best-we didn't want to pull a Michael Scott! You should be ashamed if that reference is lost on you! =)

At 4:30 a.m. my alarm went off and I was excited as puppy getting to go outside! Whit and I greeted each other in the hallway with sleepy"hi's" followed by some "ughs and "bluhhs"-as we are not morning people. We prepared like pros with our high-carb, low-fat breakfast: Bagels and cream cheese (Note: fat-free cream cheese is gross!) with a big glass of water. Remember your race day rules!

Once we arrived we gulped down more water and ate some energy beans. We debated our pace and felt comfortable with 2:30, so we found our pace guy and lined up. 8:00 hits and we were off! Jamming to Britney Spears and Taking Back Sunday apparently put me in a great mood because at mile three I told Whitney, "Yeah, we could do a full marathon!" We both chuckled and she said "ask me that again at the end!" We chopped through hills (literally as we went up them I made chopping motions with my hands to distract myself from the pain!) and found ourselves passing our pace guy! Whoop whoop, we were ahead of our goal and still feeling good.

Mile six approaches and I take the opportunity to slam another energy gel and rehydrate. Refueled and ready to go we kept our pace and chopped through some more hills. It wasn't until mile 10 when I started to become real fatigued and quit frankly I felt like laying on the ground and pitching a fit like a two year old. But, Whitney pushed me through. Literally, she came up behind me and pushed me up a hill! She was such a great motivator. I wanted to stop so bad, but she pushed me to my limit and I'm glad she did. We finished at 2:22 (our goal was 2:30).

When I crossed the finish line I didn't get the immediate satisfaction I was hoping for. All I could think about was how chaffed my thighs were and how tight my calves were. My body was in pain and I felt disgusting! After wondering around we stumbled across this awesome tent!

Rest, Relax, REFRESH!!

They had baby wipes, hand sanitizer, full length mirrors, spray deodorant, pony tail holders, and little bitty lotions. This made me feel SO much better. After a few fun pictures around Nashville we headed to eat!

 Nashville

 That's Josh, Whitney's husband

 Lunch time!!!

 Pita bread and humms

Veggie pita wrap with fries and yes that's feta cheese on the fries!

I am so proud of Whitney and myself. So proud, I'm ready to do it again! This week I start my twenty week training plan all over again. The Tuscaloosa Half Marathon is in March and I will be ready to run!

Continue reading as I continue my mission: Healthy Huggins!