My First Half Marathon

The 2023 Bluebell fun run Half Marathon in Brenham, Texas. 

The part of the marathon you don't see is the training. Even for a half marathon, and a short training cycle, I trained for 8 weeks. This was 8 weeks of 4 runs a week, sometimes 5. A long run, a short run, a tempo run, an easy run.....every week. Sometimes I got tired. At my peak training week, about 2 weeks before the race I was at 30 miles a week. This is absolutely the best I have ever felt in my life. 

The long run day is daunting. The night before you have to run 6, 8, or 14 miles....you start to talk to yourself, "Why am I doing this", "CAN I really do this", and then  "I have to do this", "I know I can do this". Eventually I remembered to pray for God's help and to give me strength to train and do another big run. Every time God was faithful and saw me through. Enormous amounts of energy and will-power (for me at least....it feels like this). In the end, even the longest training run was just as fun as it was hard. 

Training means hunger. Lots of eating. I ate meat, bread, sometimes sweets, lots of protein, always protein before bed. No desserts before bed because that would make me wake up hungry. Only complex carbs past about 7pm. Midnight snacks were boiled eggs, lunch meat or a heaping spoon of peanut butter. This sounds gross. It often was....but with a big goal in mind you stick to the plan. Lot's of protein....keep fueling. 

Lots of training and eating more... I did gain weight. Only about 2-3 pounds and I'm pretty sure it's muscle. I have "frog legs" now. 

Prepping for any race is a process. Prepping for a half marathon is half mental. I can do this. I've trained. I have good energy. I know how to do this. I'm strong. God is with me. And again.....God is with me. This part of the training was just as beneficial as the physical training. It poured over into my daily life. I noticed the pep talks in my head weren't just before a run. I was starting to just think that way. 

The actual run was harder than I even thought it would be, because a week before the race I strained my achilles. I was increasing elevation on the treadmill, and I increased a bit too much, for too long, going too fast. I felt it pull so I slowed down, but it was already hurt. So I took a few days off of running and walking completely to rest for the race. The day before I tested out my achilles and it felt much better. So, I decided to run the race.

 However.......

On race morning we got there later than expected. A series of unfortunate events. The alarm clock went off at about 4:45 as it usually needs to do on a race morning. It felt quiet and calm as we all got dressed, and ready. I had 1 cup of coffee. I think I ate oatmeal and blueberries. After going through the check list for the 3rd or 4th time (there was 2 of us racing plus other family members coming for support), we finally all got in the car and ready or not, here we come. We had to make more than one stop along the way, so this is what messed up our time. Lesson learned. Leave about 30 minutes earlier than you think you will need to leave, especially for stretching and warm ups. It takes time to get all that done...which by this time we did NOT have.  

We parked the car and literally jumped out and started jogging to packet pick up. Thankfully there was not a line. Then, we jogged UP a hill (not an ideal warm up as opposed to a brisk walk) to the start line. We got there with 2 minutes to spare, which we spent looking out for my brother-in-law who was meeting us there to run with my daughter. We found him, and I was so glad we had planned for him to run with her. My achilles was already starting to flare up so I wasn't sure I could take another step let alone finish a 13 mile race.

Actually, at this point, I wasn't sure I could even start. I had a moment of "I have to decide right now"....and something in me said to go for it.  I decided that running on a painful achilles strain was NOT ideal, but if I was careful I could keep a painful full flare up at bay. I immediately gave up all hopes of a fast time. This is hard for a runner. My new goal was to just finish. Cross the finish line without a snapped achilles. And this is a risk when running on an injury. If you aren't careful you can make it much worse. So I decided today was about the experience. I would slow down. Be good to my leg and soak in my very first half marathon. Hindsight, I think God slowed me down a bit so I could do just this. 

At the starting gun, the other runners ran ahead into the crowd of people. I slowed my pace to about a 12 minute mile and gave myself a proper, very slow warm up. So I started the race with mostly walkers and very slow joggers.  Then, I had to stop at the porta-potty which put me another 5 minutes behind. After the porta potty stop, I got into the groove with about an 11 minute mile and was able to start passing some of the walkers. This was a nice time. I just tried to be social and say hi as I went by. I made friends and even stopped for a few pictures. The hills started coming around then too. At this point I'm at about mile 5. 

The hills were definitely a challenge. My daughter and I ran the 10k in Brenham last year, so we knew about these hills, and our mantra for this race (no matter which distance we choose) is "hill yeah". Hills exhaust you faster and create a mental challenge, too. I walked up the biggest hill but found the strength to jog up most of the other smaller ones. I took run fuel at about miles 4 and 7. I had a pickle juice packet (melted pickle pop) in my running belt that was a life saver by mile 8. It got hot and the road was all sun and no shade. This is where you have to be careful. You want to drink about a gallon of water at one rest stop but you can actually drink too much water and cause yourself to get low sodium. You can die from this, and I had read about it. So, I drank my pickle pop and 1 small cup of water at mile 8, and then at mile 10 when I was unbelievably thirst, I did 2 small water cups and one last run gel. I knew the run gels would be heavy on my stomach by the finish, but my goal was to finish safely. 

At about mile 12, the half marathon course merged with the 5k course. This was the weirdest part of the whole race. I went from running with maybe 10 or 15 other slow runners to merging with hundreds, maybe over a thousand 5K participants. This immediately slows you down. There were, of course, mostly walkers for the 5K. Lots of moms with strollers and small kids. I love that they are out there being active, but some of these kids do NOT want to be there! lol. One stroller had a very small baby who was screaming and crying. I ran next to her and her mom for a few minutes because I felt like she was properly sharing my pain with those around us. My achilles was on fire. It was about then that the 5k runners realized the half marathon participants had merged with their course. 

We start going up the last big hill. It is famous for a reason. It's substantial. I regret not getting a picture. Some of the 5k runners feel the burn and I hear someone say.  "I can't imagine trying to run up this hill at the end of a half marathon". I was thinking...."I can imagine it, and it hurts...because that's what I'm doing right NOW". lol .

The best part of having to go up this big hill towards the end, is that you then get to run down the hill to the finish line. My achilles was burning and hurting so much by then. Even the downhill hurt, but I just tried to keep going. I knew my husband, daughters, my mom and even one of my sisters and nephews was there for me at the finish. I had planned to run this half marathon with my older daughter, so I think having to run alone for almost 3 hours was the hardest part of the experience (my injury slowed me down too much), but running towards that finish with so much support totally made up for it. I had texted them a few times on the course so they knew I wasn't in an ambulance headed for the ER. As I approached the finish they were cheering and taking pictures, and I just saw my husband and ran toward him (I was hurt!!), but he kissed me and I was able to keep going. I crossed the finish line with my arms up and it felt amazing. Turns out I finished only about 5 or 6 minutes after my daughter and my brother in law, so I think I did pretty well for running on an injury.

 I then ate a Bluebell cookies and cream icecream sandwich. I have read that you can eat like, 11 cupcakes with the calories you burn in a half marathon, but that did NOT sound good at all!! I only ate half of my icecream because my stomach only wanted liquids. I found my poweraide in the ice chest, sucked it down, took some pictures, hugged my sweet sister and mom, and gave a huge congratulations to my daughter, a senior in highschool, for completing her final homeschool track challenge. I was SO proud of her!! One memory of the day I will never forget is taking this picture with my husband. I could see how proud he was of me for finishing.

After the race I was definitely feeling it. Husband gave me aleve as soon as we walked through the door at home, and told me to "take it!!". We all then took a 3 hour nap. I have NEVER been so sore and tired in my life. That whole day I told everyone I was never running that particular race again because it was stupid to put myself through that many miles of hills. Then, 3 or 4 days later when the burn wore off, and I could actually go down stairs again, I decided I absolutely DID want to do this  race again. It's one of the top 10 days of my entire life. 

I also know I want to do a flat half marathon, and I do eventually want to attempt a full marathon. Woohoo!! Let's do this!!

My next race is the biggest news. My husband has start running with me and wants to do a 5K in the fall. I'll be there for it, and I'll try to keep up with him. He is fast, yall!!

I would have never guessed that running would mean so much to me personally, or that it would eventually be a family hobby.

Thank you God for my running legs and thank you for this sweet husband to share the memories with.