The Hobbler

13.1 miles. Its a lot. I want to say I ran the whole thing, but that'd be a lie. Its hard, man. I give props to anyone who runs a half marathon and I'll bow down to anyone who does a full marathon. That's determinations.

I wasn't necessarily nervous, more anxious. I just wanted to start and finish the race. As the time approached to begin, I lined up in the middle of the group. I'm not the fastest and I don't want to be last. The middle is a good place for me. The announcer blew the whistle and I ran.

I started off with the 1:45 pacer. Which is much faster than I normally run and better than I was aiming for. My goal was 2 hours, but I wouldn't have been upsest if it took 2:30. I just wanted to finish. I stayed with the 1:45 pacer for about the first 4 miles, which I was really proud of.
I kept my eyes open for the 1:50 pacer who didn't catch up with me til mile 6. We chatted for a minute and then he passed me quickly after that.

I never read any etiquette for running but I assume that others runners don't want to hear your music when you run beside them. Well I don't like running with head phones so I just put my iPhone on speaker so I could still l isten to music. That also meant everyone around me could hear it. I like to think that it made their run more enjoyable, but more likely it just pissed people off. Sorry. I do know that it made me stand out; one guy referred to me as the girl with loud music.

The interactions with other runners is one of the best things about running. I'm a down hill runner, I die when I run up hill. As I was walking up a hill a guy passed and with a thumb's up he said, "You can do it." I ran up every hill after that. I caught up to him in the last mile and I thanked him. Around mile 11 I stopped to walk and a man that passed me said, "me too." We're all in it together and it seems like everyone wants the other runners to succeed. The only exception is the first 5 to 10 runners who are focused on winning and don't care about anyone behind them. That will never be me.

My favorite part was running through the canyon, slight breeze, sun shining on the hills and one of my favorite songs came on: Mayberry by Rascal flatts. I was in heaven. It was so peaceful. I could've ran forever like that...figuratively.

The last mile was killer. I walked at least half of it. I was ready to be done at that point. My feet and legs were aching. However, it was great knowing that I was so close to being done. If I pushed myself harder I could've ran more at the end, but I wanted to save some of my energy to sprint through the finish line. You gotta show off at the end, right? I happy to get to groups of people standing on the side of the road, and little girls with pom poms, yelling "one more turn!" There were about 3 more turns, but the end was close; that was the point.

The last 50 yards was grass, which was great to run on. And the sidelines were packed with people: runners who had finished, family, friends, supporters, and Brandon, the love of my life. As I made that last turn I saw the clock 1:59:20. I could make 2 hours. I sprinted to the end. I finished in 1 hour 59 minutes and 47 seconds. I made it! I made my goal!

Brandon met me on the other side, and I gave him a big sweaty hug. He is such a great support to me. What an incredible feeling to have finished running 13 miles!

I don't know if I'll ever do a full marathon. I want to say that I will. If I do, it would only ever be one, I'm sure of that. But I can definitely see myself running more half marathons.