The second longest run of my life....

I did it, I ran my second half marathon! I cannot believe that it has already come and gone. There was so much debate for me back in November if I even wanted to do another one or not, then there was the time commitment to do all of the training, and the planning, and everything else that goes into a big race.....but I did it. What started out as 5 ladies doing it, quickly went down to just two, Hillary and myself. The training runs this time around were a lot harder because I did the majority of them alone, so I really had to push myself to go running, and then to actually run. Hillary and I always made sure to do our long runs together which was great. The day before our run we headed down to Columbus just after lunch, we had a full two and a half hour drive ahead of us. We went straight to the packet pick up and health expo. It was not too crazy and very well put together. After we walked around and got our shirts we were starving and we asked some random people in the elevator where to eat dinner. So we walked around downtown a finally found where we were going (thanks Sara for your help)and I am so glad we went where we did. We went to Marcella's and it was amazing. They had the best bruschetta I have ever had, undescribable. I wanted to get something fancy for dinner, but decided to stick with the recommened spaghetti dinner. It was cracking me up that on the men it said spaghetti and meatball, and that really is what we got...one meatball! After dinner, we walked back to ur car and then drove to our hotel. Hillary and I had a fun surprise when we got to our room. It only had one king bed instead of two queens. It was no big deal, but we had a nice little laugh imaginig what our husbands would do in that situation. For some reason the thought of them sharing a king bed is crazy and super funny, but no big deal for us. Anyay, we got everything together for the race, watched a little Shark Tank, and then went to bed. Lucky for me I slept really well, Hillary, not so much, she is pregnant and super sick:( We woke up at 6 a.m. to get ready for the race and to get some food before the long run. It was no problem at all to find somewhere to park and it was really quick to walk to the start. The start's were set up in a corral system which was great, with 13,000 people, it has to be that way. I definetly thought we put ourselves too far back, we had to pass so many slower people before we found a comfortable pace, but there was no way to move any closer with that many people. So the race began and away we went. It was so so fun with so many people and there were live bands and DJ's along the way. Unfortunetly I lost Hillary at mile two, she had to pee and there was a huge line at the port-a-potty, and she had to throw up at mile 5. poor pregnant girl. It was hard to run alone and I was grateful that I brought my headphones. I started to get worried about Hill and that I couldn't see her, so I walked through every water station and tried to slow my pace to find her, and at about mile 8 she found me!! I was so relieved to know that she was okay and not hooked up to an IV like so many other people I passed. We ran the rest of the run together, if not for her I probably would have walked more than i did at the end. My feet were killing me, and there were so many hills!!! So we did it, it's over, and I know I will do another one. I am still waiting for that perfect race. My first half was so cold and I was not prepared, this half was super hilly and I was not prepared for that. I hear a lot from people how they could never run/jog, or do anything like this, and I just wish that they knew they could. I love running and doing the races because of the people I meet along the way that inspire me. EVERY single person there had a story and a reason to run. I met two of them at our hotel when we were getting ready to leave. This woman, who was a larger woman, came walking out of the hotel and saw me stretching before getting into the car and said something like "we are staying over night after that race." I realized that she had done the race too! I asked her if she had done the half marathon and she said yes. Here are pics from our adventure:



Pretending to be excited to run the next morning.

My pre-race spaghetti dinner

All done with our rockn' meals!

I rule!