half marathon...

well, i did it! that's right, i can run 13.1 miles!!!! who'd a thought? most likely i was probably the person that thought this was least likely. here is how it went:

6:45-meet with elisha, margaret, angie and mike at the downtown ymca for stretching and prayers.
7:30-the race begins...except that there are so many people i don't get to just start running.
7:40-i cross the line to start running!
7:45-i can no longer see elisha! she's FAST!
mile 1-going strong with angie and margaret.
mile2-still going strong
mile 3-ditto, now running in bexley
mile 4- ditto, still in bexley
mile5- ditto
mile 6- i see david and emaline!!!!!!!!!!! new strength is found
mile 7-stop to pee...and then it hits the fan. margaret and angie went on and i said i would catch up. i never was able to.

when i came out of the porta potty i went to start running again and i just couldn't. i stopped for a second and tried to stretch, which was hopeless. i remember this sort of happening during my training and i decided to push through the pain. so i did. up until mile 8 my knee hurt very badly.

mile 8- my knee starts to feel somewhat better. it should also be noted that "lose yourself" by eminem started playing in mile 8. this is ironic because that song is one the 8 mile soundtrack.

mile 9- see heather and jeff!! i tell heather to pray for my knee.
mile 10- i'm in german village now. guess what... NO MORE KNEE PAIN!
mile 11- i can see the finish up ahead and this spurs me on. still NO WALKING!
mile 12- so close i can taste it i pick up the pace. i see my friend mike here!
mile 13- i was getting ready to turn left onto nationwide blvd. for the big finish when i saw my friend molly. she ran this same race 2 years ago. she was jumping up and down saying "MANDY!!! I"M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!" it was at this point that i started sobbing. happy tears. even as i type this i'm emotional.
finish line- i felt great physically. my time was 2:53, just under my 3 hour goal time.

i couldn't find david for near;y 40 minutes, and that was disappointing. in all the excitement we forgot to make a plan of where to meet. oh well. when i saw him it was still so wonderful. he was a little teary and said "you did it" in his own quiet way that meant so very much.

so it's been two days now and i'm still in disbelief that i can run 13.1 miles. ME. a couch potato. a junk food junkie. what's most amazing is that i am no longer one of these things. i'm active and i'm healthy. most importantly, i'm happy and i'm the me i always wanted to be.

sometimes it feels a little premature to claim this kind of victory. i still need to lose 20 or so pounds and then maintain it. however, i feel like in my mind i'm as healthy as i need to be and that's the biggest hurdle.

also, i will do this again. it was FUN! imagine that, running 13 miles was fun!