Flying Pig Half-Marathon ….finally

It was 2013 I decided I wanted to do this event, inspired by the team running in honor of an Inspirational young man, the son of someone I went to High School with who needed a liver transplant and years later a team ran in his name to raise money for the COPA. I didn’t make it that first year but I was a member of Sparkpeople and it was my long term goal. 2014 I had just recovered from faciaitis and had the determination but not the time to prepare. 2015 was it. I signed up a few months ago with intent to best myself, 2:45 ish from the Queen Bee last fall. I signed up because I have been told so many times that I was not a runner, because I said I would do this someday. 

When I signed up I had a plan in mind, I already knew I could do the distance t was just getting in the training. I didn’t. I let everything else be priority. Counting today I have run 53 miles today…who goes out and runs a half marathon with 40 miles of “training”. My expectatio lowerd, let’s finish, under 3 hours 13mi/hr pace. I started in the back as usual, repeating to mysel over and over, slow, steady…my first mile over 13 mins, I knew mile 6-8 were Eden park – hills upon hills. Mile 8.27 Here Comes the Sun, here came the tears, thankyou to the woman who walked into a crowd of runners to hug me – I don’t know your name but you saved that mile. Thank you to Barb, who ran miles 10-12 besife me and helped me at my hurdle monent. Ididn’t  walk other than the water stops until mile 11.75 and I could feel the blisters that adorned both feet, to finish now was the challenge.  I reminded myself there was a time when I couldn’t run a mile, and here I had just over a mile to finish. Mile 12 to the finish I ran, tears streaming down my face, shirtless and didn’t care it was warm.

My watch: 2:53:19 13:00 pace. 

Running for me is is personal, I can dedicate myself to an intention, a goal, a promise, I can feed an emotion, resolve a hurt – when its done, when my foot hits the mat, my watch stopped its gone. It’s behind me. A memory or new goal. I let go today of something I have harboured for too long and resolve to make myself stronger from it. My goal: Columbus 10/18/2015, finish in under 6 hours. Did I just say that??? Yes. I will finish a marathon.

Thankyou to my mother, my husband, Scott, my beautiful daughters, Ailey and Piper for all being as close to the finish as they could be. For all those who texted and facebooked words of encouragement that I saw when I was done; you will never understand how incredible it was to see.

 

Course Map

  

My pre-race ritual photo.

    

Official results

 

One Year of Timed Events

Happy Fourth of July…a few days late.

This past Friday I celebrated one year of timed events.  My mother asked me if I had a goal, of course I did to improve over my time from last year.

I know I went out too fast, my perfectly arranged playlist was all ready to keep me . My mother showed up, that was a surprise as she is recovering from a rather intense shoulder surgery,  she gave me a hug and wished me luck.

First song: Lose Yourself, a mile in I knew I had gone out too fast, 10:10.  The  first place finisher passed me at 15 minutes; at the three mile mark I saw my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephew – it was just .14 to the finish, last song Titanium.  When I stopped my watch I was very pleased to see that I had improved over my last years time:

2013: 786/875     (414/489 women)                                     39:08

2014: 578/780    (275/419 women) (9/27 Athena)       33:46

My improvement: 5:22 faster

 

My Family: Myself, Scott, Piper and Ailey

 

When the adult run was finished they had a kids fun run and my nephew has shown interest in running,  my sister is doing a C25K with him, he made a good showing and I love that he is wanting to try this. They are planning to do the Color Run in Cincinnati in August, I can’t wait to see how they enjoy it!

As he and I walked hand and hand back to where we all parked he asked if I had won. I had to think for a minute and then I explained to him that I will more than likely never win an event, and I don’t run to win, I do it for my health, to build stronger muscles, to help with my weight, to give me more energy and to challenge myself.

In hindsight I did win.  In the last year I have lost 30#, I have lost inches off my body, my legs aren’t much smaller but they are leaner, I worked through an injury that made me push back a goal, I’ve learned to listen to my body, and to look up instead of down, to lead with my heart, to drink while running (that’s a challenge all in itself), I’ve made the conscious choice to make running part of me, I own every mile I log; and while I will never be first, I know what it feels like to be last, I know what it feels like to cry with pride and frustration, I know what it feels like to cross the finish line knowing I put all of me out there and get every bit back.

 

A huge shout out to the husband (see him up there) he has lost 60# this year!