A Finish for the Books.

Warning: This post may bore some, as I lay out the details of my race... if so the pictures of my cute kids are worth looking at, and you can ignore the rest. For my running buddies this post is for you!

All the training and hard work was over. It was now time to see if I could prove it out on the course!

Firday, Annie and I headed down to Mankato to get ready for our half Marathon.

We had a blast at the expo, trying on running clothes, laughing at the funny shirts and getting excited when we picked up our packets for race day!

 Annie, ready to blaze the course!

We went to dinner, to carb-load(so delicious! Best salad dressing I've ever had! Oh and dessert too, I couldn't resist!)

We then checked into our hotel, and just vegged out watching chick flicks and talking. It was so much fun! I actually slept pretty well that night considering how nervous/excited I was for the following morning. I only woke up three times that night, and was able to go right back to sleep. 

The next morning we were up bright and early, 5:20 ready to hit the course!

We got to the start line about an hour early. We hit the bathrooms, chilled in a bus shelter to stay warm, where we met and incredible, cute old man who was about to run his 292nd marathon! Just amazing! Once we warmed up we checked our sweatshirts in and warmed up with a couple of stride outs and some active stretching. Then it was time to hit the coral! Boy I was so nervous! This was the moment of truth! My awesome Coach MB had sent me an email, with a plan of how to run to hit my goal. I was going over it in my mind as I waited for the gun to go off. Right on time, we were off at 8am! We got as close to the start as we could, so it didin't take us too long to cross the start line.

Miles 1-3 were a warm up. Get loose. I stayed right about where coach told me, between at 7:55 and 8 min pace. It was so hard to not go faster. It felt slow, but I knew I'd be thanking myself come mile 11 to keep it there.

Mile1- 7:53

Mile 2- 7:49

Mile 3- 7:52

Miles 4-10 I was to get into race pace, a 7:40.  This was a little hard, cause there was a lot of down hill, followed by up hills. So over all I think it ended up evening out.

Mile 6 and  8 or so I saw my family! It was so fun to get to see them! My kids are so cute!

Mile 4- 7:41, Mile 5- 7:29, Mile 6- 7:24, Mile 7- 7:38, Mile 8- 7:39, Mile 9- 7:45, Mile 10- 7:29

 Cutest kids Cheering me on!

 Brooke was a trooper!

 

 Those first 10 miles flew! I felt good and in a groove. Then came the hard part. I had to dig in and find that power that I had learned all those early mornings with my training group. The plan was to kick it to about a 7:35, maybe a 7:30 mile for miles 11 and 12. I was having some pain in the side of my calf(this darn thing happened to me last year during the marathon...), but I pushed it aside, and pushed on!

 Mile 11- 7:41, Mile 12- 7:32

Then it was track thinking time! Put it all on the line for the last 1.1 miles! I was tired, but there was a girl who had passed me around mile 11 and she was just in front of me, and I knew she had to be in my age group. She is the reason I found the energy to kick it up a notch. I couldn't have her beat me! (oh the mind of a runner!) Also knowing that my family would be there at the end gave me the courage to speed it up. (I am in the green shirt)

Last mile and some: 7:07!

I did it! It was quite emotional for me as I saw the finish line, and my family cheering me on. I had overcome the injugry, made it through months of training, with an amazing coach and great friends! I couldn't have done it without that group of friends and their support.

Official results:

7:40 Pace

1:40:30

13/313 age divison

161/1413 overall

My dear friend Annie rocked it! We ran about the first five miles together, then came the long down hill, and she was off! She ran a 1:38:35! Just incredible. I knew she would rock it. This girl ran in college, so even though according to her she didn't train hard enough, she is just blazin no matter what! We took some post pictures together, but the site has yet to post them... I'm sure we look awesome, but fun to have regardless!

We hung around for the award ceremony, and man, this was a fast field! That is Minnesota for you! These runners don't mess around. The winning male time was 1:09, and the female 1:11. Just insane!

We also headed out to the finish line and watched some marathoners as they came in! Remember the cute old man running his 292nd marathon?! Well he busted it out in under 4 hours! One of my good friends husbands was running his second in 22 days. That was so much fun to cheer him across to the finish!

So what is next for this running addict? Well, I am running this weekend in a 10 mile race called the Monster Dash, but this one is for pure fun! I am thinking some more half's this spring, then kick up the training to run the Chicago Marathon with the Coach, and some of my running group! Can we say road trip!?

Ryan and I sat down to plan out our summer of madness, between my running and his TRI's this next summer is gonna be crazy! Bring it!