Omaha Half Marathon

This morning I made a dent, albeit a small one, in my bucket list. I ran in and completed my first half marathon. Yes...me! A co-worker mentioned it a few months ago and I all but laughed in his face. I don't run long distances. I run five miles a couple times a week and I'm good with that. Actually there was a time I was proud of myself for that.

Fast forward a couple weeks and my sister-in-law Morgan mentioned it. That's when I actually thought this was something I could do. Granted, I didn't have much time to prepare, but I'd been running all summer and would just need to jump into a training plan. Easy, right?

It took a lot of back and forth with myself - "I can do it. No, I can't. Yes, I can." - until I finally took the plunge and signed up. No turning back... On August 25th, I signed up and promised myself I would see my way through it.

I attempted to follow the training plan, but to be honest it was slow going. Between work, little man and my excuses I just didn't get to day by day. I was frustrated on days I didn't get my runs in and tempted to back out. Nope, I can do this...

I woke up this morning at 5am feeling good and left the house around 5:30am. I got to Millard Ave and realized I had forgotten my running shoes. Are you kidding me?!?! This is not a good start to the day...it can only go up from here, right? To top it off, it was cold this morning. 37 degrees when I got into my car.

I got down to TD Ameritrade and the place was packed. I met up with Morgan and we lined up for our 7am start. Here goes nothing... The race started out well. I was keeping up and we were weaving in and out of the pack. Around mile 4, Morgan mentioned we were keeping an 8:10/mile pace. Eeek...too quick for me.  I ran through the next aid station for a drink of gatorade and tied my shoelace and that's where she and I parted ways (shoot, I'm just glad I lasted that long with her!). At mile 6, all of the 10k-ers were turning off toward the finish...oh how I was tempted to turn in with them...and be done. To think I still had SEVEN+ miles left.

Around mile 7, I started feeling my calves ache and we were steadily climbing hills from there until mile 9. Yuck. At mile 10 we headed back downtown and downhill which was awesome...I thought to myself "I've got this!"

I thought we would coast down 10th street to TD Ameritrade for our finish, but of course not, it couldn't be that easy. We turned onto Jackson and headed up past Hiro 88 (oh, how I wish I were inside enjoying some Snow White Chicken and a glass of wine instead of running right now). We then turned north and headed back toward the stadium on 15th. Ok, I can take this route straight to TD Ameritrade. Almost there. Nope. Up ahead I noticed we were turning east again on Farnam. Come on people...this girl is tired!

We headed down near Conagra (around 8th street - this is where I started losing steam) and back up Capitol to 16th. Back north yet again toward the finish line and I saw the mile 12 marker. Almost there! I gained some energy (I still have no idea how) and started cruising. The stadium was in site and soon I could see the finish line and not only that I could see the time clock...that can't be right 1 hour 55 minutes? There is no way I'm under 2 hours...no way its possible. But, it's true, I crossed the finish line at 1:55 and some change. I collected my medal from one of the nice looking marines and finally stopped running. My legs felt like jello, my calves were on fire, my core was aching...but I had finished!  I couldn't believe it had made it!

I have to say, I never in my dreams had ever thought I would be running 13 miles at one time and completing a half marathon, but it feels great. I can't say I want to do it again tomorrow or next week or next month, but I would consider doing another down the road. Mark that bad boy off the bucket list.

Goal: finish in under 2 hours & 15 minutes and no walking
Finished: 1:54:02 (actual time based on where we started)

After the finish with Morgan -
proud of both of us for doing this!