Since I got the wild hair in me to run the St. Jude Full Marathon coming up in Memphis on 12/3/11, I decided that I needed to run a half marathon before I got to the actual full marathon. As I was driving to Tupelo, MS to the run (about 1 & 1/2 hours from my house), I had all these thoughts going through my head (and that's a long time to be thinking before a run like that). My stomach was all in knots....had dozens...no, HUNDREDS of butterflies going through it. I just kept thinking to myself, what had I gotten myself into and why in the world would I sign up for the half, much less the full marathon. Then, my head cleared up. I told myself that no matter what, I could do this. I was ready for this. I had to finish it no matter how hard it turned out to be. I run because I enjoy it and I wasn't going to let fear take over.
I got there with about 20 minutes to spare. It was cold and windy, which made it seem even colder. After I checked in, got my bibb (paper that you pin to your clothes that has your number on it and a timing chip on it), I decided to sit in my truck and get myself "ready". About 5 minutes before it started, I headed towards the start line. I did some stretching and got my music ready to listen to while I run. We waited for the prayer and national anthem and then "POW", time to start running. I usually freak myself out at this point trying to keep up with the other runners, but I remembered what I had been told before..."take it easy on long runs or you will never make it to the end". I have found that to be very useful advice. So, I found someone that seemed to be running at the same pace I was and stayed behind that person until they started to slow down.
I felt really good during the run. Started feeling a little tired after about mile 8, but I kept on. Then on mile 11, the BURN set in. Oh boy!!! I really, really thought about quitting at that point, but told myself it would take WAY longer to walk those final 2 miles than to just run it. So, that's what I did. The kicker was that the 2nd part of the half marathon, we were running directly into the wind. That made it so much tougher. I was never so glad to see a finish line as I was when I crossed that one. And for it being my very first half marathon, I think I did pretty well with a finishing time of 2 hours and 23 minutes. Not too bad!!
Now, time to prep for the Full Marathon that's in 19 days. *sigh*
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