Raleigh Rocks Half Marathon

The big day finally came! On April 1, I ran in the Raleigh Rocks half-marathon. This is the first race I've run since before getting pregnant with Joshua more than 4 years ago, and my second half-marathon. The first one was back in grad school with my friend Amanda and I can honestly say that I didn't do a great job of training seriously for it. So this was a big deal for me! I trained and cross-trained and worked my butt off for this race, so by the morning of the race, I felt as prepared as I could be...and I was pretty excited and nervous too.

My goal was to run it in 1:50 or less, which would be around an 8:25 pace. I ended up finishing in 1:45:59 according to my chip time, which put me around an 8:05 pace--and I finished 6th in my age group (30-34) out of 118 girls, and in the top 15% overall. SO exciting! I realize that I am not built like a "typical" runner, and I've got short little legs trying to keep up with other runners who have much longer, leaner legs, so I'm really proud that I was able to finish with this time.

I actually ran the first 9-10 miles at around a 7:50-7:55 pace, but those last few miles were BRUTAL. I definitely feel like the half-marathon distance is the longest I feel motivated to run...I highly doubt you'll see any full marathons in my future, and I'm totally okay with that! I'll stick to 13.1 or less :)

My mom and dad were in town this weekend, and it

was great to have them join David, Joshua, and Leah

at the finish line to cheer me on--imagining their smiling

faces helped me get through those last tough miles.

They had flowers and a sign for me, and David gave me

the sweetest card at the car, along with a "13.1" magnet

for the back of our minivan :)

I'm really excited to have worked hard

towards a goal like this and reached it.

I think I'd like to make it a personal goal

to run a half-marathon each spring and

fall, and some 5Ks and 10Ks in between.

It is so good for me to have something

like running to keep me physically

and mentally challenged, especially as

a stay-at-home mom. I hope that as

Joshua & Leah get older, they'll see what

I do and know that they can set goals, work

hard, and reach them too!