{13.1}

My friend Kelsey talked me in to running a half marathon a while back. I thought, why not. It should help me loose some of the unwanted baby weight I'm still holding on to. So I began training at the beginning of July and the race was on Sept 5th.
I probably should have started a lot sooner and trained a lot harder then I did but I still was pleased with my time for my first 1/2 marathon. It was definitely a challenge to train for this with two kids and my husband pretty much nonexistent. I think running with the double jogger really put a damper on my pace. Even though I was able to do the training with my boys I really wanted to get a good time. I was shooting for a 9 minute mile for the entire race.
I did almost that. My pace was about a 9 1/2 minute mile. Not bad! I finished in 2 hours and 3 minutes. I know the picture says 2:04 but my official time was based on when I passed through the start with my chip and when I finished.
So lets get going on how the race was. I loved it!!! The whole atmosphere and thrill of racing. Everyone was so anxious to go. I totally feed off of that. There were about 1000 runners total for the race. Our race was called the Lake Country Half Marathon. It was so beautiful. It was held around the city Oconomowoc, which is about 40 minutes away. I couldn't believe the scenery that I was going to be running around.
The majority of the race was around this amazing lake that had beautiful homes with their own private docks. Heaven!!! If we had to stay in Wisconsin I wouldn't mind living there.
The first 9 miles just flew by. I was so entertained by all the runners and the cute little town. It really wasn't hard at all. Around Mile 11 they had a few uphill stretches that didn't feel to good on the buttocks, if you know what I mean. And the last mile was brutal, to me. The majority of it was uphill and the sun was starting to beat down on us.

But they had so many people cheering us on that it made it easier. My new shoes were amazing. I had no hip or knee pain at all. Before I got them I was living off of ibuprofen. I did receive a few gargantuan blisters out of it though.
The end was wonderful! I was so glad for it to be over. But don't think that I won't do it again. I'm actually looking forward to running it again next year. I want to better my time.
The race wouldn't have been as fun or complete without mine and Kelsey's amazing friends! Haley and Tiffany came out to support us. They made us the most hilarious posters ever!! One of them said, "you're outta this world." And they blew up pictures of our heads and put them on popsicle sticks. I was laughing so hard when we saw them during the run. They were so cute. Every few miles I would see them cheering me on. Then they would drive and honk as they pass me and be somewhere else yelling and screaming. Seriously, they are the best!!!!
After the race we went to the Original Pancake house and I got my 49'ers pancakes. Oh, they tasted so good.
I had such a good time doing this race. I don't think I will ever do a marathon. That just seems too hard and too time consuming. As for the baby weight falling off. Um, not quite all of it came off like I'd hoped it would. But it is close. Just a few more pounds to go! I can officially squeeze in to my skinny pants now without as much effort. So thank you running!! And thank you Kelsey for motivating me to do this. I will catch you next year......