I DID IT! I can’t believe I am saying this, but I just ran 13.1 miles!
It all started when a friend of mine was looking for women to sign up on her team to be placed in the lottery for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco. This is such a popular race that you have to be accepted by lottery. If a single person on a team is chosen, the whole team gets picked.
I agreed to have her put my name on the list even though at the time I was not running more than three miles per run. I also encouraged some friends to put their name in as well.
Well, we waited for months and then learned that none of us were chosen for the race. But, instead of us breathing a collective sigh of relief and staying with our little 3-milers, we all decided to commit to training for a different half marathon. We chose the Urban Cow Half Marathon in Sacramento.
We continued to run 3 miles, about four days a week, then started a Half Marathon training schedule that was posted in the Runner’s World magazine. It was a 9 or 11 week program (I don’t recall which one). Five friends came on board for the training, and we all stuck to the program.
The evening before the race, we all met in Sacramento and went to dinner at Paesano’s, a terrific Italian eatery. After a delightful dinner, we had booked two rooms at the Sacramento Sheraton. We all went down early, had a poor night sleep, but were up and ready to leave by 6:15am.
It was a beautiful morning. Perfect weather-wise. The route was gorgeous; through a fabulous neighborhood, two parks, Old Sacramento, and along the river. Crystal stayed with me the whole time. Tina and Elyse finished before us, Shanti and Carrie after us (both were nursing injuries). We also had the added bonus of seeing two friends run across the finish line that are in our Bible study..Heather and Betsy!
I ran well and strong for the first 10 miles. The last three were brutal. But, we did it. My final time was 2:49:53, but it included about a 7-10 minute bathroom break at mile 5…. (not that it really matters…)
The view from our 15th floor room…
Crystal and I running strong at mile 8….MOO!
Crossing the finish line!
The group shot! Elyse, me, Crystal, Shanti, Tina, Carrie
After a quick swim in the Sheraton pool, some of us went out for a celebratory lunch at Paul Martins in Roseville.
Yum! Salmon, with tomatoes!
