Bragging, rights? Maybe for just one post.

The Great Potato Race

13.84 miles.  D. U. N.  and I am paying for it today.

In January I started to run in an effort to lose some of my built up baby weight.  I had a pretty simple goal to be able to run 3 miles everyday mixed with Yoga to lose around 20 pounds.  It didn't quite work that way.  It really turned into 4,5,6 up to 10 miles a day with no yoga.  Whatever, it worked.

  As I began to train I realized that losing weight was only one benefit to my running.  I fully credit my many hours logged of running every day to being able to stay emotionally stable through these last 5 months.  So what started out as a simple weight loss goal became a necessity for my sanity.  I know that with each run I released stress, sadness, frustration, etc. and when I was done I was happy, healthy, and felt good.  Pretty good trade off I would say.

In March I started to really push my miles and was up to 8 -10 miles at one time.  Whatever I could squeeze into a nap time.  Thats when I started to think about running the half Marathon.

Yesterday I did it and at a pace that was WAY beyond what I do at home.  Got to be honest, crossing that finish line didn't feel magical and amazing.  Really I just felt pretty crappy.  I ran my last mile with pretty bad knee pain, a loose hip, and charlie horse in my right calf.  (Sounds like pregnancy)  I had felt great up to that last mile (ish) and I knew I couldn't stop because of how bad it all hurt.  I pushed through it and finished as strong as possible.  Fast forward about 20 minutes and I felt amazing. Nearly 14 miles!

After the race I met up with Allie and Mom who were running the 5K.  I was able to snap a few pics and then swapped our running stories for the race.  I am so glad they ran!  It is always more fun to share the experience with people -- especially ones that I really like!!

The marathon finishers got a medal.  It has a giant potato on it.  Awesome!

I caught the bus at 5:45am to be at the start line around 6:00am.  Living in Melba meant that I was up just before 5am in order to get ready, eat something, and be on the road and into Boise to catch the shuttle.  It was an EARLY morning!

We ran on such a pretty course.  We ran from Lucky Peak Dam to Ann Morrison Park at 7am.  The race began just as the sun was coming up.  The first mile was a steady incline as we ran out of the ravine, it was just breathtaking.  Great course with beautiful scenery and perfect temperatures!

When I run at home I typically wear what I have on in this picture.  A Shade shirt with cotton pants.  If any of you have run a long ways in cotton pants then you can guess what happened.  At the end of the race I looked like I had wet my pants.  Everyone else wore slick or spandex pants to wick all the sweat away.  I figured I trained in these clothes I suppose I can run the race in them too. That poor girl who wet her pants while she was running.