Is it really over?!?!

I have been training for and thinking about this half-marathon for so long now, that it is hard to believe that it is over. My body definitely knows it is over as I can barely move.:) I am going to try and be positive about the whole thing but I am my own worst critic and was truthfully VERY dissapointed in myself and my preformance in the race. 3 days before the race it started raining here thanks to Hurricane Ida. Because of all of the rain the regular race course was flooded and they had to come up with a new course. Running is a total mental thing for me. I was totally prepared mentally for the regular course. I had run all but 2 of the 13.1 miles previously and had success doing it. I had visualized myself crossing that finish line. I had pictured myself running at each mile marker. Then they changed the course. The new course was completely unfamiliar to me, and even more than that, it was ALL hills! The old course had about a 3-4 mile stretch of hills in the middle of it that I had prepared for and run with success... but 13.1 miles of hills!! Not sure what they were thinking with that one. Race day arrived. The weather was clear and just a little cloudy. I had planned to run in cold weather and Jon had bought me a really cute long-sleeved running top, but to throw another curve ball my way, the sun came out and they were calling for it to be in the 70's. There went the cute shirt.:( So feeling completely "un-cute" without my new top, we went to the race area. The new course was all hills like I said, but it was also structured so that we would have to run the same thing 3 times. When I have done my long runs, I have avoided repeating areas at all times... it just gets boring and seems longer than it is. Sorry, I know I said I was going to be positive and all I have done is whine... I guess I am just trying to take you on the mental journey of this race. We started on an uphill and I felt pretty good. I had my wonderful husband running next to me, and I was just going to go out and give it my best shot. I felt pretty good for the first half of the race. I declined water and gatorade at each point up until then, because in my training long runs I would often get cramps if I drank something. I did not take into account the fact that I usually ran in much cooler weather, without the sun beating down on me, and on a much flatter course. Around mile 7 I got a cramp in the center of my gut that made me want to just fall down. It hurt so bad. I got some gatorade and slowed to a walk trying to shake it off. It wasn't going away so then I got frustrated with myself and my shoulders and neck siezed up with the tension of it all. Poor Jon! He was trying to encourage me to try and run it off, but I just was in so much pain. Eventually I convinced him to keep going without me and I would follow behind and run when I could. I am a complete novice to running and especially to half-marathon's, so I know that I probably made every mistake in the book. Still worrying about cramping I passed up another water stop. I also passed on the GU that they were passing out because I had never tried running with that stuff before. I was so worried that it would make me sick. Now I am on my own on this hilly course and all I want to do is give up. I am just berating myself the whole time for being so mentally weak that I can't just suck it up and run. A guy from our church was out there running the race as well, and he had passed Jon and I at one point and said, "Even if you have to walk the whole thing, don't let this course beat you." So as I am walking along trying to get rid of the tension and cramp, and getting more and more frustrated, I am trying to let his voice win out over my own in my head. I ran with another girl for a bit, and then lo and behold, I see Jon walking towards me. He decided it wasn't very fun to run alone, so he was waiting for me and we were able to finish together. I was feeling really really horrible when I found him... light headed and weak... along with being so frustrated with myself. He encouraged me to get some GU and water and I was actually able to finish running. I am not proud of myself... not really. I am glad that it is over. I know that I can only get better. I know that I will not run that hilly course again. I know that I will pay better attention to my body which was sending me very signal that it was seriously dehydrated... so much so that the roof of my mouth is raw from it being so dry. Thankfully I was able to run more of it than I walked, so I can be proud of that. I wish that I wasn't so hard on myself, because a lot of people never even attempt a half-marathon. I guess that I just need to get tougher mentally. I have a couple of pictures that I will post sometime soon. I am waiting on ones that people took after the race when we finally finished. I will also post pictures of our beautiful birthday girls celebration. I just wanted to get this half-marathon update on here. Thanks so much for everyone who was praying for me and cheering me on! It was your prayers that kept me going to even finish the race.:)

Not to be outdone...

This week is a pretty exciting one around our house! My Mom, 2 older sisters, and all the cousins arrive this evening for a visit and especially to help celebrate Eliana's 4th birthday this Friday! Jon and I are preparing to run our very first half-marathon this Saturday... I am nervous, but so thankful for the extra help and extra cheerleaders we will have with us in my family.:) Apparantly the little Kai man was feeling a little left out in all the excitement... so he decided to start rolling over yesterday!:) He has been really close for a while now, and finally gave Eliana and I a treat when he did it yesterday. Jon missed Eliana rolling over because he was in Afghanistan, so it was SO exciting and special for him to watch Kai do it when he came home from work. Thankfully Kai was in a cooperative mood!:) The exciting week just got even more exciting thanks to little buddy!:)

A new toy and other news...

Ok... so we all know how terrible I am about keeping up with this blog that I thought I would add another "blogging" type thing to my plate. A friend of mine created a photo share site free on shutterfly. People (namely grandparents :) ) can you go on the site and order right from it the pictures that they want... but it also has a link to post the pics right to a blog. For some reason posting the pictures to my shutterfly site and then attaching them to this blog seems a whole lot easier than putting them on the blog. I guess that I always feel like I have to write some sort of witty entry to go with the pictures... I know it's not true, but I just feel that way. So maybe this way I will do a better job.:)
In other news... a few weeks ago we started Eliana in her first ballet class. She absolutely LOVES to dance and one of her little friends from church was already in the class, so we joined too. Of course I had to receive a crash course in all things ballet, thanks Kimberly and Nikki, since I am clueless! I never took dance and never learned to dance any kind of dance, so this is a whole new world for me. This is just a side note, but in this area of the country dance is HUGE!! It seems like everybody wants their kids in dance and every grown up grew up in dance. Like I said... a whole new world!!:) But, Eliana loves it, so that is what is important. She looks so cute in her little outfit, and I love her happy smile when she comes out of class.
My half-marathon is right around the corner! I cannot believe it! I am in the tapering portion of the training right now. Tomorrow I get to run a 3 miler... the first time in weeks that I have run something that short! I am very excited about it... I think I was feeling a little "overtrained" and was actually not enjoying my running as much which made me sad. So one more semi-long run this coming weekend and then the race is on the 14th!
Kai had his 4 month check-up a couple weeks ago, and is doing great! He is in the
50th percentile for both height and weight and the 75th for head circumference. He continues to eat like a champ, as evidenced by his 15lbs. and chubby cheeks.:) He is also a great sleeper, and such a happy baby! This is an exciting time for Jon and I as we enter into the ages and stages of Kai's development that he missed with Eliana while he was in Afghanistan. It is almost like having a first baby all over again.:) It is so fun for me to watch him taking it all in. What a blessing!
Hopefully I will do better at blogging and posting pictures with this new shutterfly share site.:) Have a great week!!

2009-10-29

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2009-10-31

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