Race day!

About 3 months ago I decided I need to do something to keep me motivated in losing weight. I decided I would run a half marathon. I found a race and it was close by to family. Well today was the day of the race! We spent the night with Melissa and Jonathan so that we wouldn't have to worry about driving down south so early in the morning. Thomas dropped me off at the race location at about 6:15 in the morning. And then headed back to the house to wait for Eli to wake up and get him breakfast and ready for the day. Melissa and Jonathan were nice enough to listen for Eli while Thomas was dropping me off at the race site.

All week my knee has been giving me major issues and I was not sure if I would even be able to finish the race let alone run it. Every time during the week when I would run afterwords I would barely be able to walk with the pain that was going on in my knee. So I made the decision to walk the first few mile. I think it was the best decision for me at the time. I ended up walking 3 miles and then running the last 10.1 miles (without stopping). After running 2 miles the pain in my knee went away. I have been praying for days that the lord would take my pain away and had asked other to please pray for me and the Lord answered my prayers! We all assumed that after I was done running that the pain would come but as I lay her typing this my knee still does not hurt! I can still tell there is something up with my knee but there is no terrible pain and I can go up and down stairs with out too much issue.


This was the view from the starting line of the race. The theme is "Salute to Our Military" with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Julie Michelle Koch Lyons Cancer Foundation. Since the theme was Military there were members of the local ROTC there to start us off and raise the flag. We got to run under the flag at the start of the race.


These were the "fans"that came cheer us on at the 2nd mile. I think they are the early morning race fans.


I didn't get any coffee before the race and so I was glad I had no money on me during the race when I saw Coffee Oasis. I would have been the runner out there with coffee in one had and my cell phone in the other. Another hard spot on the race course was around mile 10 there was an Ashley Doughnut and the smell coming from there was unbelievable (can you tell I was hungry?)



Mile 11 what a lovely site! (and a picture of my thumb, it's hard to take pictures and run at the same time!)


Mile 12 almost there! I swear that last mile seemed like the longest mile ever! There were some cute kids at this mile marker handing out cold wet sponges.


This a friend of Thomas' That we didn't even know was running the race until that morning when Thomas ran into her husband.


Me about to cross the finish
line (I'm in the gray shirt with black pants)


Just a few more steps! Then I was greeted with my two biggest fans! What's better then finishing a race and getting a kiss from your 2 favorite guys!


Me and my finisher medal! My first ever medal.


Eli Liked my medal too!


Eli loved my medal He had to wear it in the car and at home.


I guess everyone wanted to wear my medal!

The race was so much fun. Now that this is over I wonder what I will try to do next!