Half Marathon Recap: BOOM. DID IT.

Let's just discuss the fact that on Saturday, March 16, ya girl ran a whole 13.1 miles. I DID IT. And let me tell ya, that ish was HARD. The farthest I'd ever run before then was 10 miles, the weekend before. According to my training plan, "you'll get through the last 3.1 with your heart, even though  you've only ever run 10." UHH NO THAT'S NOT TRUE. My heart was forreal like, "can we stop now?". So yea, next time definitely doing a practice 13 so my body won't freak out so hard. This is a super long post, FYI.

I ran it with my friend Becca. We've been friends since 8th grade! We've never been super close, but in the same group of friends, so training for this half made us a lot closer! Our other friend Gabrielle was supposed to run it as well, but an injury took her out of it. So we get to the start line at 7:20 and the race starts at 7:30, but we forgot the whole thing about corrals going 1 by 1, so we didn't actually cross the starting line till around 8 am. We started out strong and feelin good, doing lots of dancing and selfie taking right before we started.

I wore my "13 Point Freaking 1" tank top from Ruffles with Love!

We finished the first 3.1 miles in 33 minutes, about a minute or so slower than my usual 5k time, but I chalked it up to nerves. There was a water station soon after, and my dummy self drank some because everyone else did. I knew I shouldn't have, because I never need to drink on my runs really, but I did. Cue stomach cramps. Ugh, so annoying. So the cramps slowed me down. I felt bad because Becca slowed to run with me, and I knew she could go faster if I wasn't dying lagging behind with my cramps. Mile 3-5 were pretty uninteresting. And then mile 6 came along. Good Lord I've never seen a hill so steep in my life. Definitely didn't train for that kind of monster. Becca took it like a champ, passing everyone and jogging straight up. Meanwhile, I'm fat girl bouncing up the hill. I most likely could've walked faster than I was "running". Not gonna lie, I walked for 5 seconds while Becca wasn't looking. And then she saw me, so I had to run most of the hill. The only thing that made it bearable was the hilarious spectators. After the hill we ran through a lot of neighborhoods where people were playing music, tailgating, and passing out beers to runners! It made running a lot more fun to see complete strangers being so awesome and cheering us on. We even passed by a "margarita and cherry bombs" station! The inner college girl in me was very interested, but I turned it down for fear of tummy troubles that could lead to a porta potty...if you know what I mean. Just sayin.

We hit mile 10 and I felt a little better, and then a gatorade/GU gel station came up. I was all over that. Love me some lemon lime gatorade. I drank way too much, obviously I didn't learn my lesson, and the stomach cramps came back. I was thirsty! Tummy would have to deal with it, dammit. I also took a GU gel, let's just say that was disgusting. Gooey orange flavored thick gel. This girl was not a fan. Around Mile 11 I started to hit a wall. Probably because my body was pissed that we were still running, 2 hours later. I started to get choked up because I felt like cardiovascular-wise, I was fine, but my hips and flat feet were not. I tried to calm down, because my throat was starting to close up from the onset of the alligator tears, and that wouldn't have been lovely. A lady came up beside me as I was walking and said to me, "Don't give up, you've come this far. Walk a little, run a little, but do not give up." Girlfriend didn't know how badly I needed to hear that. I've come so far from the girl who struggled to run a mile, and there I was at mile 11! I let go of my time goal of 2:30 and just ran. Eventually I looked up and saw the finish line around the corner. I sprinted my little heart out, which wasn't very fast, and threw my little arms in the air as I crossed that finish line. I grabbed my medal, which was surprisingly heavy, and loaded up on all the snackies afterwards.  

I found my boyfriend, who is so incredibly supportive of everything I do, and gave him a nice sweaty hug. We didn't get any pictures together, probably because of my soon to come drama..

The boyfriend and I started walking towards Metro to head home and my shin started to feel weird. It made me limp a little bit, and were near the medical tent so we headed over just to get my leg stretched out a bit. So I sat down and she started to stretch my calf and then the pain came. All of a sudden I felt the most intense cramp of my life, right below my calf muscle. My foot was basically stuck in a pointed position and tears started to roll down my face. After 15 minutes of stretching my leg, bawling like a small child, and drinking gatorade, my leg was wrapped up and I was on my way. Lesson learned: need more electrolytes.

Overall I had fun, and I'd definitely do it again...in like 6 months.