I am pretending to be tough, really I am wishing I could lay on the ground! This was taken by my awesome support team and good friends Cheri and Karla right after the race! It was so nice for me to see a familiar face at the finish line. Thanks girls for your support!
This is me and Nora right after we finished. She is the perfect workout partner for me. She is motivated and serious and right at my level, it is so nice! I love it. A good work out partner is hard to come by, so she was great to have for this race.
Crossing the finish line.
The last .1 of a mile or in other words, THE HOME STRETCH!!! So close, but soooo far.
I am so, so, SO proud of myself! I did it! I actually did it! I am still amazed with myself and my dedication to running, but a half marathon? REALLY?? AND I did it!!!!
I have to admit that I really wasn't sure if I would be able to run the full 13 miles. I didn't know if I was quite there yet with all of my training, not to mention the wildfire smoke. There has been a huge wildfire pretty close to Fairbanks for a couple of weeks now and all of its smoke is blown this direction. There have been quite a few days in the past 10 days or so where it has been "unsafe" outside just to walk or play, so the thought of running for 2 hours in the smoke, yeah right. I honestly thought the run would be cancelled or postponed (I think I was secretly hoping for more training time) because as of last night the smoke was so thick most AK flights were cancelled so surely that is just too muck of a health risk. Well at about midnight last night I decided that with or without the smoke I was going to run....on a treadmill for 13 miles. Then I get woke up by my running partner at 7am to hear that almost all smoke is gone, and she's running outside! Of coarse I was SO scared all of the sudden, but I knew I was in.
Nora and I ran together the whole way pushing each other and talking ourselves through it....or maybe we were just talking a lot. Actually we were. There is a point in the run where you make a loop and then head back the way you just came. Well in this loop they added a little extra .3 mile for the "going to" direction. Either way, we were supposed to only do that extra loop once but we were so busy talking and being girls that we missed our turn and ran an extra .3 miles (about 3 minutes in time). Grrr. The only way we noticed was because we had worked hard to pass these 2 different group of people, and then all of the sudden they were in front of us again. Oh that was quite the downer, especially on mile #10 when you are ready to give up. We didn't. We didn't really ever have the urge to give up (meaning start walking), but we still felt pretty dumb for it.
Either way, I finished at 2:19:00 (extra 3 minutes are already subtracted!) which I think is fabulous! I crossed the finish line and felt pretty good overall. My body was tired, but not dead. My endurance could have lasted a while longer. My breathing wasn't heavy and out of control, just moderate. My muscles were tight, but not sore or burning. Apparently I was ready for today :)!!! I am not ready for tomorrow though. I know the aching is about to begin......
I have to admit that I really wasn't sure if I would be able to run the full 13 miles. I didn't know if I was quite there yet with all of my training, not to mention the wildfire smoke. There has been a huge wildfire pretty close to Fairbanks for a couple of weeks now and all of its smoke is blown this direction. There have been quite a few days in the past 10 days or so where it has been "unsafe" outside just to walk or play, so the thought of running for 2 hours in the smoke, yeah right. I honestly thought the run would be cancelled or postponed (I think I was secretly hoping for more training time) because as of last night the smoke was so thick most AK flights were cancelled so surely that is just too muck of a health risk. Well at about midnight last night I decided that with or without the smoke I was going to run....on a treadmill for 13 miles. Then I get woke up by my running partner at 7am to hear that almost all smoke is gone, and she's running outside! Of coarse I was SO scared all of the sudden, but I knew I was in.
Nora and I ran together the whole way pushing each other and talking ourselves through it....or maybe we were just talking a lot. Actually we were. There is a point in the run where you make a loop and then head back the way you just came. Well in this loop they added a little extra .3 mile for the "going to" direction. Either way, we were supposed to only do that extra loop once but we were so busy talking and being girls that we missed our turn and ran an extra .3 miles (about 3 minutes in time). Grrr. The only way we noticed was because we had worked hard to pass these 2 different group of people, and then all of the sudden they were in front of us again. Oh that was quite the downer, especially on mile #10 when you are ready to give up. We didn't. We didn't really ever have the urge to give up (meaning start walking), but we still felt pretty dumb for it.
Either way, I finished at 2:19:00 (extra 3 minutes are already subtracted!) which I think is fabulous! I crossed the finish line and felt pretty good overall. My body was tired, but not dead. My endurance could have lasted a while longer. My breathing wasn't heavy and out of control, just moderate. My muscles were tight, but not sore or burning. Apparently I was ready for today :)!!! I am not ready for tomorrow though. I know the aching is about to begin......
11 comments:
HOLY COW!!!!! CONGRATS!!! You are amazing! That is so awesome! You are a machine! I am so proud of you and knew you could do it! And man... you sure blew me out of the water! Way to go on the time.
That mile 10 can get you! That is about where I just wanted to die.
But I told you, you would love it! Such a great feeling crossing the finish line. Where are the pictures?????
CONGRATS again! Love ya!
PS... are you going to do the full marathon????
Yay for You!!! I knew you could do it!
Kari, you're amazing! Congratulations!
That is so awesome! Congratulations! Phillip, who has run several half marys, said, "Take two AF miracle drug (mortin 800) and put your feet up."
That is so awesome!! After hearing that you started running, which I know you despise, it's got me motivated to start, too! And I forgot to tell you, my brother and his wife are moving to Anchorage and we're visiting them next summer. I told Derek that I HAVE to hop over and see you!
You go girl!! I could never do that!!! Your time is awesome too. I am proud of you. I miss hearing from you. I will be home in a week. Love you girl!! I will be asking you for running advice because I su --uck! TTYS!
That is AWESOME!!!!! How exciting for you!!! Congratulations! Maybe someday, I'll get the umph to do something like that. :0)
Yeah! Congratulations! That is so fantastic- and you can say that you ran MORE than a half marathon with that extra .3. :) Great job!
Congrats! You are a better woman than me for running...I HATE RUNNING!
I am so impressed with your motivation! I wish I had had the drive to get my rear in gear. (someday) You're awesome!
Hey girl! That is so awesome. I am sure it feels wonderful to accomplish such a big goal not to mention that you look totally hot. It is all about the running. I can't wait to see you!!
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