Birch Bay Half, Celebration Day!

Wow 13.1 miles!  We did it, to say I felt accomplished is an understatement.  I knew I should have blogged about this right after it happened to have all of those feelings fresh in my mind, but now even 3 weeks later I can still remember how I felt when I crossed the finish line: exhausted, ready to throw up, in a ton of knee and foot pain, and had the biggest smile on face!  Sound like fun, sure was!!! 

Me being an a very very anxious person, had this day in mind since October when I signed up and started training for this.  With the help of Carolyn she found a training schedule that by luck got me to actually still be running at the end.  Not an easy task considering my knees, and trust me I tried every excuse in my head to get out of this after miles 8, 9, 10 in my training because I was in too much pain, but I because I was running with my friends, I knew there was no turning back.  Looking back I would have been so mad if I would have given up, and although I am not signed up for another, the pain for this ONE was worth it, and now the pressure is off! :)

My "running partners" (see picture/quote below)  were the only reason I got through this.  Running is so mental, and time consuming really.  Having Joelle, Stacey, Sarah, and Carolyn all training with me gave me that extra boost to keep going.  Joelle bailed on me and got pregnant, haha, but we got all the way up to 7 miles together before she left for Hawaii and came back with the awesome news!  We spent many late late nights after the kids were in bed busting out miles all around town.  Training in the winter left us with some 25 degree weather, and we battled ice, snow, and some good north easter winds.  We bonded! :) Stacey and Sarah were huge during the long runs and could talk a mile a minute and made our runs just fly by.   Sarah even took a full minute off my mile time in quick 4 mile run we did one day, she kicks butt, and I was putt in my place... :)  Care was my trainer and motivator via text, phone, email, you got it, always positive and so helpful being the running pro that she is!  Knowing that I we would be visiting them in Walla Walla on mile 8 week, kept me focused, I didn't want to show up and not be ready!  Training was hard, physically and mentally for me, it isn't easy running 3 days a week for 4 months straight, but making it a priority and following through was so rewarding.  Going into race day, I had some really good advice from a friend/trainer at the gym, Bethany, to go into the day of the race and to not focus on speed, or making a certain mile time, but just to CELEBRATE the hard work you put in.  Which was so true, we put in 4 months of time to prepare, and no matter what we accomplished something.

Click on picture to read the quote--LOVE IT!!!

Stacey, me, and Care--- Sarah we missed you!!!  Sarah had a 103 fever race day, and came down with pneumonia that knocked her out for 2 weeks after.  We knew it had to be serious for her to miss this, just thinking about how hard she would have been pushing us during the race helped us go harder and "faster" just for you SARAH!

Being that Josh and Stacey have a place out at Birch Bay made it really fun for our families to come out and cheer us on.  We came by the cabin at mile 10, so they handed us some Spark, lots of cheers, and some high fives.  Just what we needed to push through the last 3.1 miles!

Go moms go!!!!!

What a cool day, we finished in 2 hours and 11 minutes, and we did have a great time!  Stacey talked the whole time (thanks Stace!) and Care with our professional trainer giving us intervals and mile times off her garmin running watch... Couldn't have done it without them.  Thanks girls!!!