Hershey Half Marathon

It's been about 6 months that I've been training for this day. Once I finally got in a stage with Matty that I could exercise and feel like something as big as a half marathon seemed like a remote possibility, I took the plunge and signed up for it. I thought it would be the perfect motivation to get back in shape and celebrate the first year with our Matty and my health.
No surprise, I woke up about 15 minutes before the 6:00 alarm. I was in bed the night before around 9:00 but got myself so nervous and wound up that I didn't fall asleep until some time after midnight and then kept waking up throughout the night. The above picture was taken by Adam right when Mike Reager arrived to take us up to Hershey. I was ready to get the race started.

The race course itself was beautiful. The morning was a crisp 50 degree fall morning but the winds were really strong and it felt cold. Once 8:00 start time arrived, I was ready to go. There were about 2700 runners and the first 2 miles were crowded and I definitely went out faster than I normally do partly because I was keeping up with everyone around me, trying to get warm, and partly because of the adrenaline pumping through my body. I love that pre-race feeling, but I was surprised at how rev ed up and nervous I got. The first few miles my stomach was all out of sorts and still feeling the nerves. Finally around mile 4 or 5 I started to get into a much better groove focusing on my own running and not what everyone else around me was doing. I knew if I kept it up there was no way I was going to finish. Then I finished the highest climb around mile 6 and was in some neighborhoods and tried to just stay in rhythm and enjoy everything that was happening around me. The constant rolling hills became much more difficult than I anticipated and by mile 8 running through what felt like a wind tunnel was giving me some serious mental challenges. It was the first moment where I wasn't sure if I was actually going to finish the race. Fortunately, with all the uphills come downhills too and I tried to keep some perspective, be thankful for the opportunity to even run in the first place, and just keep going one step at a time. Honestly, by the end of the course I was hurting and getting anxious and just wanted to get into that stadium. When I finally entered the stadium and heard the music blaring and saw all the thousands of people, it was so an emotional, physical relief. I started to swell up with tears and had so many emotions going through my body. I crossed the finish line and internally broke down. It's hard to explain but I am continually amazed at the body God gave me. In a few short seconds so many moments flashed through my head from Matty and Tyler's births to nursing both of them, to getting Lyme disease where I could hardly walk to the car, to being pregnant, to training runs that took me away from my family. In those seconds I felt such an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment and complete awe of what the female body and can and I vowed to continue to take care of it to the best of my abilities.

I was thrilled to have all my boys there to celebrate with me and even Mom and Dad and Phil were there in support as well. It gave me so much joy to be able to share this morning with all of them.

I was in some pain and all I wanted to do was sit down and fortunately Tyler sat right on my lap and kept me warm. He gave me some victory flowers that Grammy brought with her.

The two beautiful, healthy boys that God allowed me to carry and give birth to were so sweet (even though they really had no clue what was happening!).

I was smothering them with some kisses and Tyler was laughing and I think Matty was ready for his nap!

It finally hit me that I needed to get some fuel in my body considering I hardly had anything more than a piece of toast all morning, but the food line was sooo long. There were so many people congested in such a small area that I was ready to go home. Sweet Adam helped get us back home safely. It was a surprisingly challenging morning for me and I consider it my own personal victory in celebrating our first year of Matty's life. The mind and body are mighty power and I will promise to keep exercising both in hopes of being the best Mommy and Wife I can be.