I did it!

Sorry this is a bit past due, but...

I DID IT!

I ran my first Half Marathon! Two words to describe it would be

  brutal  &  AWESOME!

As for the race being brutal, the blame is on me. I had been previously warned that a "trail" half marathon is far different than a road one, but I chose to close my ears. I assumed that trail meant a little bumps and rocks here and there... I had no idea that it mean mountain here and everywhere! Okay so maybe I am exaggerating. But! I am being completely honest when I say that it felt like it was at least 40% uphill. My muscles and lungs handled everything great, my joints were another story. See, if I over exert my knees, they fill with fluid, and my knees were definitely not prepared for those hills. The last four miles were excruciatingly painful. Going downhill was the hardest part, even more so than uphill, just because of the pressure it put on my crybaby joints. When I reached the finish line, I started crying. I was so exhausted. Tim's embrace was the most wonderful thing to collapse into.

Moving on to the awesome part, I got to run this race with my Mother. She is amazing. She actually got lost for a while and ran 14.5 miles! She also did missionary work while running with a less active. Go Mamma! Also, while running the race I got to see some of the most beautiful scenes in the world. It was magical.It's also awesome knowing that I accomplished a really hard thing. Besides my knees hurting the first day, I wasn't a tad bit sore the day after - so awesome! I'm motivated, inspired! I want to run another one right now! Running that race was so rewarding. If you even have a little inkling of desire to maybe run one someday, start today! 
It is so worth it.

Sincerely

The Mrs.