Well, friends, it’s over.

I ran my 2nd 1/2 marathon on Saturday along with Jonathan, my sister, Sarah, and her hubby, Joel.

We woke up at 6:30 AM on Saturday, bundled our kiddos up in multiple layers until they were ready to brave the arctic, and then proceeded to brave the arctic ourselves.

For the next 13.1 miles.

Here are some pics that encapsulate some of the events:

I’ll explain them starting at the top and going clockwise:

my kids – extremely bundled for the event
oh, just runnin’ along
a nice in-motion view of yours truly during the race
massive cardinal cheering on the runners. why yes, I did give him a high five.
my awesome hubby, heading towards the start line

The race itself was fine. And by fine, I mean hard. And by hard I mean…well, let’s just say I began developing a blister on my right foot at mile 4 {out 0f 13} and was amazingly lightheaded from miles 7-12.

All I could think about was food during those miles. I could tell my body needed some type of nourishment – or at least sugar. I felt extremely faint and just wanted to curl up on the side of the road and sleep.

And now comes the part in the story where I saw a random citizen on the side of the road with a bag of white powdered hostess donuts and a sign “RIP Hostess.”

I ran over to her, “Are these for me?”

“Sure.”

So I grabbed one while giving her an extremely sincere “Blessings on your head” comment and ran off in great delight.

After the donut incident and several cups of water and gatorade, I felt much better – around mile 12 and a 1/2. Still, when I crossed the finish line, Jonathan said I looked quite pale.

Here we all are at the finish line:

Anna Grace is chillin’ in the stroller – eating the plethora of snacks I grabbed from the chute. And Nate – who knows what he’s doing.

I told Jonathan I was super hungry for a Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich…wouldn’t you know it…he suggested we celebrate and eat there for lunch.

Seriously, how many Daddies play pat-a-cake with their little girls? I got a great one.

And then I decided to splurge and get some ice cream. {but if you follow me on instagram, you know I also splurged yesterday and got a peppermint white mocha frappuccino. of course, I’ll be using the “oh, but I ran a 1/2 marathon” excuse for a while. it should last me through Christmas, I think.}

All in all, it turned out to be a good time. I finished in 2:29 and some seconds. Worse than my time 2 years ago, but my training was worse too. So I’ll take the trade-off.

To all you marathon-ers out there, you’ll appreciate this pic:

Yep – gotta take the good with the bad.

Pain = Temporary
Pride = Forever

Goal? Accomplished.

 

 

 

 

 

p.s. I’ll be back Wednesday to share one thing I’m thankful for. How about getting ready to share one thing you’re thankful for in the comments on Wednesday’s post? It will be like our own mini praise service. Only it will be on a blog post. Can’t wait to read what you are thankful for this year!