Achievements

1. This my 100th blog. Woot!

2. Remember my resolution from earlier this year? Well the results are in, and I've lost about 18 pounds, give or take a pound or two based on time of day and what I'm currently wearing. :) How did I do it you ask? Well that leads me to....

3. I ran a Half Marathon! Yes, really, I did! And I did a heck of a lot better than I thought I would. This was something I had been thinking about doing for awhile. My brothers ran a full marathon a couple years ago, and I took them to the start at 5:30 in the morning, watched them run by at about the 11th mile, and was amongst the crowd of runners, family, friends, and supporters at the finish line, not to mention the whole day. I remember the feeling of accomplishment in the air all around me, and I thought: "wow that would be cool to run a marathon!", immediately followed another thought: "HA! I could never do that!" Well, it turns out I was half right! :)

Earlier this year, I was talking with my dear friend Sandra. We were talking about wanting to lose weight, and what we would have to do to get there. Turns out we both had the same idea: running. (Oh, and eating healthy, blah blah blah. ;) And we both felt the same way about it, too: yuck. But with a bit of motivation, and some accountability, we bravely set about training. I had difficulties at first because I was still breastfeeding, and exercise decreased my production, so I wasn't able to really get moving till about June. That still gave me 13 weeks to train for the race I had my heart set on: The Disneyland Half Marathon. It was always appealing to me, not just because you run through Disneyland, but because the route is entirely in Anaheim, which included running through Angel Stadium! Running a route that I would be familiar with was very encouraging for me. (The price tag was less than encouraging unfortunately.)

Training didn't always go according to the schedule, and there were a few times I was really discouraged and didn't think I'd be able to pull it off. But the last few weeks got really good! Sandra and I ran together when we could during the week, but we always did our "long runs" together on Saturdays. The most we ever ran pre-race was 10 miles, which we did twice. The second 10 mile run, we ran to the beach! It was beautiful, and a fun way to see part of Orange County that I had never seen. And then for some reason, the next week we ran 9 miles...RUNNING THE WHOLE WAY!! Crazy, I know! If you'd like to read about our training, we blogged about it: Sandra and Becky Go Running.

So that leads me to race day. Sandra picked me up at 4-freakin-30 in the morning! The race started at 6, and we wanted to be sure we had time to get where we were going. When we signed up for the race, we had to put an estimate finish time, and we both said 3 hours......mainly because we didn't want to think that it might take any longer than that! That put us in the 5th group to start, specifically Corral E. There was F and G after us, so we were relieved we weren't the last ones to start. :) Each corral was HUGE! I would try to explain how big, but I really don't know how! I'll just say, the race started at 6 am, but we didn't officially start until about 6:15!!

My memory of the race at this point was that it wasn't so hard. :) Oh, it wasn't easy, I was DEAD tired, and wasn't able to run the whole way, but I didn't struggle as much as I thought I would. There were times when it felt like it was going by real quick. At a couple of mile markers I would think "Really? Already?" We did walk through the last 5 or 6 water stations, and a couple other times as well, but short walks, just enough to give us a break. During the run, I saw my dad twice (once in Disneyland, once in California Adventure, he works there and was on the clock at the time, but the race kinda kept him from being able to do his work) and my mom, but unfortunately missed Trevor and Declan inside the stadium. We seriously just missed seeing each other, I saw Colin (Sandra's husband) but he was at the opposite end from my boys, and they didn't see me go by. :( It was a bummer, but knowing that they were there for me (and not off in the bathroom or something, thinking I wasn't coming by for awhile) made me feel a little better.

Near the end, Sandra and I started talking about how we wanted to finish, holding hands a la Thelma and Louise? Um, no. Sprinting? Maybe. Our finish ended up being similar to our first race, a 5K (3 miles), that we ran in June. That race was the first time we had run 3 miles without walking. We had decided not to sprint at the finish, but once we were in sight of it and the clock, we realized we could finish under 40 min! So sprint we did.....which was unnecessary. You see at that race, we had also not started right at the gunfire, but about a minute after. So our race time ended being about 38:4something. No sprinting needed. At the half, we rounded the corner, with the end in sight, and the announcer says "We're about to hit 3 hours, so if you want to come in before then, you better hurry!" Now I don't know if this is how it really happened, but for dramatic effect: when we heard that, Sandra and I looked at each other, and silently each said "Let's do it!" with our eyes, and we went for it! Sprint sprint sprint sprint sprint....which isn't easy to do through a crowd of other sprinters! And then we were done.

What a feeling! Kinda didn't seem real at first, and....well, still doesn't. :) But when I do think about it, I am pretty stinkin' proud of myself! My official time was 2:43:02. Our goal was to finish in 3 hours or less, so this time far surpassed what we had hoped for! I didn't get too terribly sore after the race either. I was sore, no doubt, but never debilitating, like I thought I would be. And, at this point it's been long enough, I will admit that I see myself running another one in the future....half marathon, of course. I don't really have any desire to do a full. 13.1 miles is enough for me! But perhaps I'll go for the Coast to Coast Medal, something you get for running the Disneyland Half and either the half or full at Disneyworld in the same calendar year. But that will after another baby. (No, that's not an announcement.) Seriously, running is a pretty good way to lose weight! Just look back at achievement #2 in this post! :)

And now....the photos! :) (Some of these are the official race ones, that I copied from their site, so they aren't as big....you'll survive, right?)

This was the night before, after our carb load dinner at the Spaghetti Factory! My favorite!

Our early morning "before" picture.

In front of the Carousel, just before running through the castle.

Rivers of America, with Mark Twain and Thunder Mountain behind us. Shortly after this we decided to use the Disneyland bathrooms rather than the port-a-potties along the route. SOOOO nice! We didn't have to wait in line, and we even got to wash our hands!! :)

Running through the stadium, Colin caught these shots. It was really fun to see someone you knew who was there to see you! The encouragement from the cheerleaders (yes, there were actual cheerleaders along the route) and other random spectators was cool, but it's great to see your own supporters!

This was when I was like "Where's Trevor and D?" This picture made Trevor really sad. :(

Near the end, running through California Adventure.

The next two are when we were crossing the finish line...can you find me? :)

Just after the race, with our Medals!

After our 5K, when we saw all the official photos, we noticed that we gave a lot...no, too many thumbs up. This race, we went with the Superman pose. Well, I did mostly, Sandra went with Jazz hands. :)

Crazy face....and a silly thumb snuck in there, too.

The day before the race we went to a birthday party for Declan's friend (and my friend Chantel's son) Colton's birthday, which was actually on the 6th, the race day. There were tattoos at the party, so I took one and wore it to honor Colton and his big day.

A tired momma and her boy.

One of my best friends and Declan's Godmother, Brianne, was out for Colton's party, and met me for the after-race meal at IHOP. When I was getting pictures for this blog, I realized that I didn't get any pictures with her. :( Thanks Bri for meeting up with us and celebrating me! :)

Ooh, another race story! So, again at our 5K, we were so proud that we ran the whole way. However, there was this lady in front of us the whole time....WALKING! So as excited as we were at our amazingness, there she was WALKING and still going faster than us. Fast forward to 0.5 miles into the half, and who do we see?! The WALKING lady! We immediately run faster and pass her, but all throughout running in the parks, we kept seeing her pass us! What the heck! And then, when we used the bathroom, we thought, this is it, we won't see her again. Then, somewhere around the 6th mile, we spotted her. After passing her then...we never saw her again! We never noticed her bib number, so we didn't know what her time was, but Detecive Sandra did some sleuth work and found this. We was 10 minutes faster! NICE! Take that WALKER! :)

Now, unfortunately I have not been very disciplined since the race. In fact, I believe I basically have scoffed in the face of discipline. I have not run once. I've wanted to.....but apparently I've wanted to sleep more. And because of that, achievement #2 has become kinda null. :( I guess I need a race to keep me motivated....here's to the next race....whenever that is. :)