half-marathon

I am going to try my best to catch up on all the things we did the last of the year. One of those being the half-marathon I ran in December. I had not done a race since Madison was born, so I was pretty excited about doing the training and running this race. It was definitely a climb the first six weeks of training. Running four miles felt like I was pushing hard. Every week I kept thinking it should be getting easier, but it just kept being physically difficult. Then I hit the six mile mark and I think all of the previous weeks were finally paying off. I felt great the remaining long runs and found my love for running long distances again. 

I also knew that the training is the hardest part, so I had confidence the race would go well. We headed down to Galveston early in the morning, leaving the girls with the grandparents. We stopped at Starbucks and enjoyed a scream-free car ride. I began to get a little bit nervous when we met up with my dad and brother. We casually walked around and took in all the super intense, pre-race warm-ups of the other runners. 

Then the race started. I always hate the first three miles. I felt really awful, but did not want to say anything. Luckily, I found my groove at mile 4 and began to enjoy the run. We ran along the ocean in Galveston. The humidity felt great after training in such a dry climate. About half-way, Grant noticed that we were getting a little bit faster each mile, so he encouraged me to keep it up so we could finish under two hours. 

At mile 11, I just wanted to be done. So I picked up the pace and headed for the finish line and we crossed in under two hours.

 

It felt great to do this race. I am looking forward to doing more this year and using the running as a way to take back a little piece of me. There is something great that happens after running for an hour and I am so glad that I pushed my body to get back to that place.