I ran a half marathon!?!?!?!

Yes, yes I did!!! With 2 5k's under my belt from over a year ago, I decided it was time to kick it up a notch and sign up for a half marathon back in March. I found the shortest training program I could and focused on getting my weekly long runs in. I discovered that my friend (and neighbor) Jenny was the BEST running buddy ever during these long weekend runs. She's training for a marathon in June but decided to do the half with me. She ran the whole thing with me never leaving my side, even though I was a pretty sad case starting around mile 9. Mile 10 things got even harder and by mile 11 I was digging deep to get to that darn finish line. The course was super hilly for me, I have never run hills or farther than 11.5 miles ever, but I stuck it out and made it to the end in 2 hours and 26 minutes. Now I might have to try to do another one faster. But for now, I'm taking some time off and enjoying a week of rest and pizza, lots of pizza.

Post race smiles with our coffee cups.

Our little runner.

Miles ran his first official race! Our kids talk about running a lot. It's fun to see them pretending to run "marathons" around our basement, and how excited Miles was when we asked him if he wanted to sign up for a race. It was cold and windy, but we got him to the start line at the Lake Harriet Bandshell, and he did it. Tim got him his first pair of running shoes, and they came in the mail that week. He was so excited to try them out. He ran the whole .4 mile and was so proud to cross that finish line. Tim stayed with him the whole time (hey we are new with this?!?!) I had no idea what to expect, and it seemed strange to just send him off on his own. He is still my baby you know. I hope our kids grow up to be runners. I started running 2 years ago and it is so hard starting in your 30's but hey, you got to start somewhere right?

8 Miles

Alright, so I know I have some catch up posts to do and I will maybe get to some of those at some point this week (why is it so hard to sit down and download pictures and update this blog!?!?) but most importantly right now I need to document something that happened today. Something that has never happened in my life, and I am so happy and proud of myself.  I ran 8 miles today!!! 8 whole long glorious miles. The farthest I have ever run ever, and on a treadmill (I hate the treadmill).  I have been really trying hard to get back into running and have been committing to running 3 times a week and doing at least one longer run on the weekends. I started running for the first time in my life after Evie was born. I decided that it was time to find a workout that I could do anywhere, anytime and preferably with her. We have awesome running strollers and she never liked the childcare at the gym, so the winter of 2011/12 I downloaded a couch to 5k training program and religiously followed it. I spent many evenings at the gym on the treadmill after the kids had gone to bed. It was hard, and I wanted to quit several times as I usually do with most things but I stuck it out and was able to run an entire 5k by spring. After that I was addicted. I started running outside pushing the kids around in our double Bob while we lived in the rental house over the summer of 2012. I'd run the paths along the creek and got up to running about 3-4 miles a day with that thing. Then we moved into our new house and chaos took over. House projects ruled and my running went by the sidelines. The thing with running for me is that I have to stick with it or I lose it quickly. It is so damn HARD! Then I threw my back out lifting weights in May and was totally unable to run or do much for the entire summer. It was depressing.  We live blocks from our favorite lake that has a great 3 mile trail around it, and I had all these dreams of running the lake all summer long and getting more races under my belt. These things never happened and then winter hit again. Evie started loving the gym's daycare and I decided a couple of months ago that it was time to start running again and once again I got on the treadmill and it was a slow slow process. But a month of running has really paid off because TODAY I RAN 8 MILES!! No walking, all running. And it was awesome. I felt fantastic afterwards (usually I get horrible stomach cramps after a longer run).

The only bad thing about running is afterwards you decide it is totally fine to eat a huge helping of spaghetti for dinner, a glass of wine, a bunch of thin mint girl scout cookies and ice cream with chocolate syrup. But hey, I ran 8 miles today!