I FINISHED!!!!

Well my fingers are about the only part of my body that isn't hurting at the moment, however they took about 4 hours to thaw out.

So my morning began at 5:30 as I got up and got my running shoes on asking them to carry the furthest they ever have. I ate some food, not real sure what to eat for maximum performance so I just fueled up with a hodgepodge of foods including a diet coke (real runners would be appalled) to keep that nasty caffeine headache at bay. I headed to my sisters house to ride downtown with her and her husband for the big race. We parked with ease and got inside the American Airlines center for warmth and a potty break, with the rest of the 15,000 runners.
Adrienne (sister) and I walked Doug to the starting point for the full marathon and sent him on his happy way.

We still had an hour to wait til the half marathon began so we headed back to the car to get out of the cold and crowds. We chit chatted til about 8:45 and then went back out to brave the cold. Before we got out of the car an agreement was made, that I know will be kept. See all this idea of the half marathon began about December 30th of 2007 when two goofy sisters were sitting around discussing resolutions. We had just finished the relay and had fun doing that, then we watched Doug finish his 2nd marathon and that is always inspiring. So one of us threw out the idea of going for the half marathon on '08 and we chuckled and said "why not". Now before you think we are actually, die hard follow through on our commitment people, we are SO NOT, but there was one other person in the room that heard that conversation that clearly is of that crazy personality, Doug, and he would not hear of us NOT following through on this commitment. So the sister pack that was made this morning is that no New Year's resolutions will be discussed between sisters, well at least not in the presence of Doug, EVER AGAIN!!

We made our way to the starting line and waited in the wind and the cold for the start. It's just AMAZING how many people take part in this event. I think 6000 ran the Half Marathon.
It's always a little anti climatic when you hear the starting gun, because it takes awhile to actually get 6000 people across one starting point. We were off for 13.1 miles of running fun. Adrienne and I stuck together til we hit a hill about mile 4 and then we went our separate ways. I think my few years of Atlanta running still helps me on these Texas Hills or should we say inclines! After that it was just me, no music, no buddies, just me and a sea of strangers all asking their body to do something difficult. I love the people watching, it's amazing to see some that have a stride that looks painful with each step and others that are fluid runners that look lean and mean. It's inspiring to see the people in a wheel chair as they ask their arms to do the same work I am asking of my legs and feet. I saw two blind runners that were running with guides. The level of trust the blind person must have in their guide must be amazing.

So I overall I felt good, it was so cold and my legs never seemed to lose their tight grip and warm up for me. My feet were great, which I was extremely grateful for, once the feet start to go it gets nasty! Things were smooth sailing to mile 9, then I am convinced that someone was moving the mile marker flags further and further apart, my stomach started growling, and the grip on my hamstrings was starting to tighten. I am kinda goofy because I don't like to stop and walk through aid stations so I know that I wasn't really hydrating myself very well, I grabbed a gatorade from one table and drank and ran, spilling most of it on me, but still refusing to stop. At mile 10 a small miracle happened, one fella was passing out jolly ranchers, I grabbed one and it was the best jolly rancher EVER. It tasted really really good and served as a great distraction from the thoughts of just wanting to be finished.

Next thing I knew I could hear the roar of the crowd as I neared the finished. This is such a neat thing. I knew my mom and dad and sweet husband and kids were waiting somewhere in that line and freezing their little bottoms off, so I had to keep going. I spotted them quickly and saw the sweet sign Chris and the kids made me, this of course brought tears and just the final push I needed to finish! I crossed the finish line at 2 hours and 25 minutes! My goal was somewhere between 2:30 to 2:40, so I am quite happy about that.

I made it home and got in a warm bath and promptly feel asleep! I woke myself up snoring in the bath tub! How funny is that!

I am so glad it's done and my legs are still letting me know that they gave me their all, but that should get better soon. I am very happy that it's over and I am very happy that I did it.

If you are still actually reading this long post, you may feel like you just ran a marathon! ha