My first half marathon

Wow-I can actually saw that I have ran a half marathon.

Chris and I dropped the kids off with my dad on Friday, April 24th and headed to Nashville. I thought it would be a good idea to drink a lot of water so we had to stop A LOT! Luckily, we were not in a hurry to get there. It was so nice to be in the car all by ourselves and actually have a conversation with out being interrupted. When we got there we walked around the galleria and ate lunch at O'Charleys. Then we met Karrie at her conference and headed to check into the hotel and pick up our race packets. This is where I realized how BIG this race was. There were OVER 32,000 runners/walkers. We had to walk in this long winding line up and down stairs and around and around just to get into the room to pick up our packets. Then we met Doug and Sara at The Old Spaghetti Factory to eat. Of course, all the runners wanted to eat pasta so this place was PACKED OUT! We waited forever and I was so tired and starving by the time we ate. But , we sure enjoyed the Cole's company!

SATURDAY

3:45AM!!!!!!! Alarm goes off!!!!!!!

4:30AM!!!!!!! Meet Karrie in lobby and head out.

We parked at the end of the race and rode a bus to the start. It was wierd to be out before the sun was even up.

5:00AM Got some free breakfast food and water and just kinda sat around and people watched. Runners are wierd!

6:30AM Decided we better use the bathroom before the race starts. Walk down to where the port-a-poties are and see a LONG LINE of people! We waited THIRTY minutes to use the potty. By this point the potties were DISCUSTING!

7:00AM Give Chris kiss goodbye and start walking to find our corrall. Corrall #1 starts running. It was neat to look ahead and see the thousands of runners going up the hill. They let 1,000 runners start every 2-3 minutes. So,

8:00AM Our corrall starts. I felt like I was running in place cause it was so crowded. It is hard to even explain what happened or how I felt over the next couple of hours. The course was very hilly and it was hard because there were so many walkers that we had to run around. At some points Karrie and I had a hard time staying together because of this. I felt like we ran like an extra mile just weaving in and out of people. The first 5 or so miles went by pretty fast. Every couple of miles there was a live band. This was a lot of fun especially if they were playing a song that we knew. People would run by and clap to the band. A lot of the race was through residential area-which was nice cause it was mostly shaded. It was also neat cause people were just sitting out in their front yards holding signs and cheering us on. I kept my mind busy by reading signs and t-shirts and people watching. We passed Chris at about mile 3 and 7. It was so neat to see him on the sidelines supporting us! Every mile or so they had people handing out little cups of water. Karrie and I decided to take water everytime it was offered. I think this really helped us. Oh, one mile they handed out orange slices and that was the best thing I have ever eaten!!!!!!!! The bottoms of my feet started hurting at some point and I got one small cramp in my side-but I was able to run through it. We saw Chris again at mile 11 and he joined us running for a minute, asking how we were and said "See you at the finish line". For whatever reason that point is where I felt like I started struggling. I never stopped running but I REALLY wanted to! It didn't help that everyone was yelling, "Your almost there" , "One more turn" "One more hill" "You've already come this far" I felt like SHOUTING "SHUT UP-YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT!" Not to mention it started getting hot and there was NO shade. Mile 12 we got a burst of energy cause the band was playing "Sweet Home Alabama"! Finally, I saw it THE FINISH LINE. I was so excited to see it. I grabbed Karrie's hand and we ran over the line. WOW! What a rush. Our time was 2 hours 42 minutes and 16 seconds. I could not believe that I just ran for that long with out stopping! We stopped running and just started walking through all the people. A guy handed us our medal and there was tons of free food. We took one of everything-water, bananna, bagel, muffin, fruit cup, granolla bar, and more. I didn't feel hungry but I knew I needed to eat or I would be sick. It was all kinda like slow motion walking through all of this. Wierd feeling. We planned to meet Chris under the "S" (for sprayberry) sign so we headed that way. We had to wait for about 30 minutes cause he didn't realize that we had already finished. So, we just ate our food and sat in the shade. My legs were already starting to stiffen up. I was so glad to finally see him cause he had some flip flops for me in his back pack. When I took my tennis shoes off my feet were covered in blisters. Chris was able to take some really neat pictures as he walked around. We went back to the room and had about 30 minutes to take a shower and check out. We stopped at a burger joint for lunch and then went by the Opryland Hotel. My legs were hurting pretty bad by this point. We headed home to get the kids. I missed them a lot. Momma and Daddy said they did great. They even took Sydney to her t-ball game Saturday morning. I stayed sore for a couple of days. The worst day was probably Sunday cause my back was just SO stiff! Overall, it was an AMAZING experience that I am glad I was able to participate in. The best part is my training is over. I love to run but it is hard to find the tme to train. Now I can run because I want to not because I have to!

Here are a couple of highlights from our trip.

Karrie and I before the race



At the expo they had some riducously priced running clothes.

Doug and Sara at the restaurant. So glad we got to see them! Miss you guys!

Karrie eating a bananna before the race. As she was eating she said "and I don't even like banannas!"

Check out all the port-a-potties. As we were standing in line we saw all this white stuff being thrown over the top. We then realized that workers were back there tossing over rolls of toilet paper. People were running up and grabbing them -just in case their potty was out. It was hillarioius!

Just a glimpse of how many runners were there!

This was beautiful!

Chris saw a runner peeing by the building.

MILE 11

running in a tu-tu

We also saw a guy carrying a big American Flag while running , a guy juggling while running , a guy kicking a soccer ball while running , and a group of girls hoola-hooping while walking.

more runners

Everyonce in a while there were people spraying you off with a water hose. Well, I didn't want to get my feet wet so I tried to avoid them. At one point, I accidently ran under one and the water was so FREEZING that it knocked the breath out of me! It made my bag cramp up-I was so mad!

showing off our medals

The Opryland Hotel was beautiful. I kepy having to remind myself that I was inside a hotel!

Thank you so much to all my friends and family who supported me! I had so many people call and text to check on how things went. Thanks to mom and dad for keeping the kids. Thanks to Karrie for keeping me motivated. Most of all, thanks to Chris for being there with us-our number one fan!