We Survived!

      One week ago today, I ran my first ever half marathon...and I survived! After a year of anticipation and preparation (well...a few months of preparation), I finally did it! This post will be solely dedicated to telling you how amazing (and brutal) it was, and if I have time tonight, I'll catch you up on the other events of my super fabulous life.

      Last Saturday, me, Stew, Melanie, and Madeline headed to New Orleans after lunch, and after getting turned around a few times and narrowly avoiding wrecks (stop signs can be so hard to see sometimes), we finally made it to the check-in at the convention center. I didn't realize how big of a deal this race was going to be! The convention center was full of people, but we got in and out pretty quickly. 

      After we got our shirts, numbers, and goodie bags, we decided that it was time to get some grub. We headed over to Mother's for dinner, and it was so delicious. Even though I still live in south Louisiana, I don't get delicious gumbo, jambalaya, and etouffee very often. Mother's had it all! As expected, we left there full and ready for bed.

      Lucky, a friend of a friend of a friend (I think?) opened up her home to us and was gracious enough to let us stay with her for the night. We got there not long after dark, but it felt like midnight! We stayed up for while talking about the race and other random things, but I'm pretty sure we were in bed before 10pm. That was a good thing though, because we woke up at 5am to head to the race! I don't mind waking up early, but I really do prefer waking up after the sun.

      We managed to leave the house a little before 6am after quite a groggy wake up, and we found some super cheap parking not far from the starting line. Finding cheap parking in New Orleans is like finding $20 on the ground. Or $50 even. It's freaking fabulous.  We sat in the car for a while convincing our legs that they could trust us, and then it was time to head to our corrals. Stew and I were in the same one, and Melanie and Madeline were in whichever ones correlated with their expected finish times. We got to the race just in time to witness the beginning of it all!

The really crazy ones.

      They started corrals sooner than we expected, so we had to split up pretty quickly. There were so many people!! Who knew there were 22,000 people in the world who wouldn't mind getting up at 5am to run 13.1 miles? Here's what I was expecting to be the last picture ever taken of me as a living being.

Some things are only possible when you're trying to beat your best friend, right? :)

      Before we knew it, we were at the start line and they were yelling GO! Ahhhh! Stew and I ran the first three miles in what was probably our best 5k time ever, and the next three weren't too bad either. I want to say things were just fabulous until about...mile 8? That's when I started getting stiff....and hungry. It's downright cruel to make me run by Cafe Du Monde! The last five miles got worse and worse, but we did it! We finished! In under two and a half hours! With our limbs still attached to our torsos! All in all, it was a good race. :)

      As soon as we crossed the finish line, I thought I was going to die. All of a sudden I found myself collecting bananas, bagels, marathon bars, water, gatorade, chocolate milk, and everything else I could hold. I don't know what got into me...I guess I was really famished! I mean come on, I burned 1500 calories! I also grabbed a nifty space blanket that came in handy, as you can see.

Why wasn't anyone else this exhaused?

      Eventually, our group was reunited. After a quick recap, we headed over to the shuttles and were on our merry way home. It's crazy that a year's worth of anticipation and preparation all came down to something that was over in less than three hours. Madness!

We did it! We freaking did it! 

My new bling!

Eventually I was able to stand again...yay!

      I'm so glad I decided to give into Mel's crazy idea and run a half marathon. Once upon a time, I could hardly run a mile straight! I never could have done it without being pushed and nagged by my dear friends to start training and keep training for more than three days at a time. It's been a week since the race, and I think my body has finally recovered. As crazy as it sounds, I'm ready for more! I definitely want to do another half, but I have my sights set on the Rocketchix triathlon at the end of July. I'll be embarking on this next endeavor with my equally-insane friend Victoria at some point in the next few weeks. I might be a runner, but can I be a runner, swimmer, and biker at the same time? We'll see! Later!