NIKE WOMEN'S MARATHON 10.18.09

*not keeping up on things really drives a perfectionist crazy...this is why i have a hard time scrapping my 4 kids! you get behind and now what? they say, just start from where you are at, but uh, it's so hard to have missing pieces.*

back in the days when we were training for our 5K...okay, many, many months ago, someone had the bright idea to sign up for a half marathon. say what? we hadn't even run the 3.1 miles that we had been working our way up to through our run/walk program...but, little blue boxes with white ribbons tied beautifully tied around it will make a girl do crazy things.

yes, that was the motivation and drive behind signing up to do the nike women's 1/2 marathon-- a tiffany pendent after you crossed the finish line.

back in march, stephanie, michelle, melissa, jess and i decided that we would sign up and give up our saturday mornings, along with many other early mornings or late nights to train to run 13.1 miles.

we've all suffered injuries and set backs here and there, but nothing, and i mean nothing was going to get in the way of our pendent.

we left for the city on saturday. we wanted to visit all the booths, figure out our race day plan, and relax before sunday. stephanie and chris have a family house that was just blocks from the race. it was awesome! we were able to stay there and take in the beautiful views of the city and alcatraz.

sunday morning we were awake at 4:30 in the morning. lots of emotions running through our bodies! as we were lined up, waiting for 7:00 to come, there were times i was almost in tears. i just couldn't believe i was with 19,999 other people and i was going to run 13.1 miles.

the whole way, there were spectators cheering us on. never a dull moment. even other runners that i didn't know were encouraging along the way.

the hills were intense! but the downhill was the best! i think my shoes were tied too tight and cutting off the circulation in my feet, so i was feeling discouraged at times...but jess kept me going. we had fun eating all the goodies offered on the sidelines and taking pictures. it was so worth it, even if it did take up 10 minutes of our time!

we finished in 3 hours, 10 minutes. and yes, we got that tiffany & co. pendent. i haven't taken it off since!

i can't wait until next year...and my new goal is to finish in under 3 hours.