It's Ovah!!

It’s over! Months of running and training are finally done, and I did it. I ran all of the 13 miles in 1 hour and 55 minutes, much faster than anticipated. And the weather was GORGEOUS! And even though I’m ready to not run for a long, long time, after all that hard work it feels like I should keep it up instead of just letting myself get all soggy again. I’m too sore right now to think about extra movements :) but I am planning to run the Race for the Cure 5k downtown this Saturday! Three miles is NOTHING!!

 My thoughts about the half-marathon:

• Des Moines is a really beautiful place when you are forced to look around and not just whiz by in a car!

• Your body can do things you never thought it could.

• Running is very much a mind game.

• I will be forever grateful for Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” for getting me through mile 8 when I hit my wall. And for Greenday for ending the race with me!

• It was really strange to be running and running for what felt like forever until my legs wanted to fall off and then….I just stopped. I got to the finish line and all of a sudden the thing I was trying so hard NOT to stop just stopped.

• The body types and ages of people who could run well amazed me. Some people who look like they should be really good or fast are not, and others who you’d never guess could run a mile were right up front.

• Some people can run crazy fast. Just about 15 minutes after I crossed the finish line, the first marathoners were finishing their race. That is CRAZY fast!!

• Go to the bathroom before you start running.

• Don’t drink too much while you are running. One girl did, and it wasn’t pretty….

• If you are there to watch a runner, maybe consider the fact that they will probably run faster than expected, and be at the finish line a few minute early. Just sayin’….

• I can’t imagine getting to 13 miles and being like “well, I’m halfway there!” Marathoners are crazy….

• A giant HILL at 11.5 miles?? Not cool, Des Moines, not cool at all….

• I got passed by a guy who looked 80.

• I passed a guy who was wearing a t-shirt that said he’s run a marathon in every state….twice!

• And last but not least – the Des Moines Marathon web site needs a MAJOR overhaul. At midnight the night before the race, Joel happened to notice something on the site that said you had to pick up your registration stuff BEFORE Sunday morning or you couldn’t race. I was devastated – all that work for nothing! I had read the website, registered early, and read the emails they sent to me. Nothing anywhere said I had to pick up my stuff before race day, except for this one buried page on the site. Thankfully, we e-mailed someone right away and they let me know I could pick up my stuff in the morning. Geesh, talk about total panic!

What an accomplishment for this non-running girl to complete this race. When I said I wanted to do it two years ago, I think I was mostly kidding. At that time I couldn’t even run one mile, and the most I had run before that was 4 miles during Miss Iowa training. And honestly, until I crossed that finish line, I had my doubts whether I could run the entire race or not. People were dropping like flies during the last mile. But I pressed on, and am so glad I did. What goals are you going to take steps toward tackling today?? Get out and do it!!

Update with official results: I finished 938th out of 4,369 half marathon runners, and 328th out of 2,522 female participants. My official 10k time was 53:10, and my half marathon time was 1:54:11, placing my rank at 79th for females ages 25-29, whatever the heck that means!