13.1

That's the new magnet on my car, since I just completed my first half-marathon on Sunday, March 30. Colby and I signed up for this marathon a long time ago, and before we knew it, it was here!!!! She flew in, we went to the race expo and spent a little too much money, I fell down the stairs at the MARTA station and got cussed out in Spanish, we hung out at my awesome cousin Lisa's house and carb-loaded, we tried to go to sleep, we woke up REALLY early, and just barely got our bags checked in time to start the race.

And then, we were off. With 10, 793 other people, in windy and chilly (44 degrees) weather. It was awesome! I had to stop a few times for the bathroom, and the lines were WAY long, but other than that, I did really well, running the whole way.........until mile 10. Something happened at mile 10. Maybe it was because my longest distance before this event was 7.5 miles. Maybe it was because there was much less cheering after mile 9. Maybe it was because I had a cold. Who knows? All I know is that after mile 10, I ran the flats and the downhills, and walked the hills. But, I crossed the finish line, and that is all that matters, even though I crossed half frozen and unable to feel my fingers. Colby and I finally found each other (she only had 1 bathroom break to slow her down, and ran faster than me anyway), and walked slowly, VERY slowly, back to the MARTA station to go home. I think that was the longest 3 blocks ever - we were tired, we were cold, the wind was blowing, and we had to keep detouring around road construction.

I wore a very cool shirt that I found at the expo - the front said "This seemed like a good idea 3 months ago", and the back said "Race Official - Do Not Pass". I laugh just thinking about it, and some of the laughs I got along the way.

Colby and I were zombies pretty much the rest of the day. Thank you Brent for taking such good care of us.

Next up - the St Jude Half Marathon in Memphis in early December. Wanna come along? Look at the SmartCoach link on the right, play with it a bit, and see what your training would be like if you were to start training right now. I guarantee its do-able, and I believe, the more the merrier :)

Love - Jess