My 9th Half Marathon

It was an early-morning Wamego, Kansas. The temperatures were chilly but the sunrise was beautiful!

One of the best parts about this half marathon, is that I didn't have to travel far from home. And that also meant lots of wonderful and familiar faces too.

I knew Chad and the boys planned to be at the race and that they were making posters for me. But I had no idea just how awesome they would be!

If there were an award for best signs, they would definitely win!

But my two favorite signs were "my mommy kicks asphalt" and in big bold letters, GO MOMMY!

I felt great for this half marathon! I Felt strong the whe way and even ran the first 7 miles averaging a 9:50 pace!

It was a beautiful course, and I had lots of mental things to look forward to along the way. Having Chad and the boys there was just wonderful!!!

The last 2 miles were the only point of the race where I struggled a bit. Everyone that had been running around me suddenly either stopped to walk or fell behind me and there was one huge hill at mile 12. Luckily Chad and the boys were there cheering and Mitchell ran the last mile in with me to the finish. It was definitely a finish that I will never forget with him by my side!

My official time was 2:12:12 with no walking! After being sick last week, I wasn't expecting much out of this race and was just hoping to possibly finish somewhere around 2:20:00. I was very happy with this time! While it was not my fastest, it certainly was not my slowest race either and I beat my time from my previous years half marathon by over 10 minutes!

48 hours

It's now less than 40 hours until my ninth half marathon!

Good, bad, or otherwise my training is complete and this week I am logged over 200 miles so far for 2015!

Now all that is left to do is rest, eat some pasta and wait for the start time Saturday morning!

Unprepared

It's five days away from race day, and I am feeling very unprepared. After taking it easy last week to heal up, we ended the week with a crazy stomach bug virus that seem to hold on for several days.

I was finally feeling well enough to run again today. I am feeling very nervous about the upcoming half marathon in Wamego on Saturday due to this illness and my lack of recent running.

On a brighter note, the weather is looking great for Saturday! While the end of spring break illness has thrown a curveball into things I am still just focusing on my goal of finishing this race....with no other expectations other than to complete my 9th half marathon.

Spring Breakers at Work

Other than having a great weekend trip to Nebraska to see Chad's family, the boys and I have been having a stacation spring break at home.

I completed my 12 mile long run last week on Wednesday and then ran another 7 miles over the weekend while in Nebraska. After taking a 3 mile hike with the kids on Monday while our good friends the Ingram's were moving to town, I decided it was time to let a few injuries heal up this week.

This is hard for me to do, however I know if I don't they will just continue to nag at me until my race on the 28th.

But that doesn't mean the boys and I haven't been active so far this week! Yesterday and today we have been working hard in the yard clearing off flowerbeds and hauling away a massive amount of leaves.

The sad part is, that this giant load is only from the first three quarters of our front yard....ugh.

But the dreary cold and wet weather didn't get us down and we cleared most of the leaves in the front yard today. The boys have been a huge help and we will now move on to the backyard tomorrow. We are spring break backyard warriors

Running update

Today I completed my last long run before I begin to taper for my upcoming half marathon at the end of the month.

12 miles in full sun and 70 degrees was....interesting. It doesn't sound that warm until you factor in that all my other runs have been in temperatures 30 to 40 degrees cooler.

The last 4 miles were slow and a struggle to complete, but it is finished.

I am still struggling with how slow my pace is after taking so much time off around the holidays.

My goal will be to just run this next half with no walking and not get too down on myself about my slower time/pace. I keep reminding myself that just running 12 miles is true test of mental toughness and perseverance. 18 days until my 9th half marathon!