Read. Set. Run 13.1

Oh my- is it just me or is it crazy cold today? The beauty of having the half behind me is that on cold mornings like this, I don't have to run. Instead, I opted for weights with the 5:02 workout group. I am in serious need of some upper body/core strength.

Ya'll, I cannot believe I ran a half marathon. Our goal was to not walk a step and finish in under 2 1/2 hours.

I never walked a single step and my official time was 2:29. Yes, I'm bragging a bit here.

While I am thrilled I finished the run, I think I am most proud of myself for sticking with the training. It was brutal at times but I worked ran my boo-tay off for 3.5 months for a total of 197 miles logged during training.

And I only played hookey twice.

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, feel free to skip the rest of this post. I apologize for blowing up the news feed with photos and running stats all weekend.

Saturday morning started early for me at 4:30. I was up, dressed, and believe it or not I curled my hair- although you can't tell in any of the pictures post mile 1. We arrived at 6:30 am, I drank my faithful Advocare Spark and ate my banana  per my usual long run day ritual.

We were off at 7:00 for the hilliest route possible. At mile one Pastor Brown's calf (which he injured on our last long run) started hurting so we prayed and ran through it. At mile 4 I was tired of the hills and was about to break. At mile six, surprise, my knee bands started pulling (they always do on long runs). Our first six miles were sub 11 minutes so we decided to take it down a notch for the remaining hilly spots. I shot my Slam at mile 8 and trudged on.

When we reached mile 10, along with a hill that felt like Mount Everest, I was waning. The last three miles were solid hills, curves, and an incline that put extra work on my already weaker right side.

Brutal.

Pastor Brown hit a wall at mile 11.5, which is the same place we hit our wall on our last long run. After a quick pep talk we were picking up the pace to finish it out.

I can't describe how I felt seeing that finish line and knowing I didn't have a single hill left to battle.

Pastor Brown and I finished together, and our other partner in crime, Missouri Momma, finished soon after.

13.1- done!

My husband informed me that I am a beast. hehe

What it was all about- running in honor of those with Alzheimer's and Dementia

Pre-Race when we still looked decent :)

Around mile 4- it finally stopped raining.

Finish line

My stats

Official finish time

There you have it, friends- 13.1 details. The fun doesn't stop here, though. We are already committed to a half in Tuscaloosa on March 8th and we are considering a half at the beach in late February.

Happy Half-Marathoning!