OC Half

I wrote this on Sunday evening…but just posting now…

I hate running

Like really…I don’t like to run…at ALL…BUT somehow I always end up getting talked into signing up for races! haha. I hate it in the beginning when it hurts to run one mile without stopping…and I was impressed with myself that recently I was able to run like 5 miles without stopping and it didn’t hurt too bad!! Thats GOOD for me! lol

Here is Taryn and I meeting halfway during our last training run…she lives on one side of Eastvale, I’m on the other…so we’d run in the same direction and meet up. Then she’d turn herself around and finish her run with me…always being able to get more miles in than this girl. She’s crazy.  But it was nice to have a partner on some runs…being alone can be kinda lonely at times.

The past few months I’ve been “training” for a half marathon that a few of my girlfriends from work were doing. They train HARDCORE…I pretend to train “hardcore” haha. Unfortunately one of my girlfriends broke a rib from coughing a few weeks ago and had to pull out of the race. But I was running like 3 times a week…trying to make one of those runs a “long one” 4-5 miles. I got up to 6 miles one weekend…and should have gotten up to 9miles BUT it didn’t happen…and I felt it today…around the 8-9 mile marker. Ouch. 

waking up at 3:30am to get to Costa Mesa by 5:30 was kinda tough…

Waitin’ to start….we met up with some of our co-workers. Math Department strong here! lol

Thousands of runners…but ran into a few old friends…was nice.
 
  
My only “goal” was to beat my last half marathon time…which was 2:38 at the Surf City back in 2011…and I’m happy to say I did it!! Woot Woot.

Above: At Mile the end of mile 1.5ish. We were going downhill toward PCH and it was a beautiful view…and Below: you KNOW I stopped to take a pic at mile 3 overlooking the ocean at Corona Del Mar…I’ll admit it was very nice…and easy at that point! lol Hence why I was able to stop to take a pic. As the course went on and on the ability to be taking pictures was GONE! lol
 

Happy to see Mom cheering me on at Mile 7….

 

And then I starting hitting a wall….lots of hills, narrowing of the path forcing me to get behind slower runners, water stations were falling behind not having water ready and the water was warm, running into the warm sun…I had to dig deep! haha.

These girls kicked my booty. Taryn got a 2:05, Nichole got a 2:12 and I got a 2:23.  I’m happy with that….and have said NUMEROUS times today…I don’t want to do another one of these again. I’ll stick with the 10k’s…6 miles is TOTALLY do-able. 

I have a sense of major accomplishment today. I don’t run because I like to. I don’t run to lose weight (because that doesn’t happen for me since I still eat like shit!).
I run because I can!! There was a time when I couldn’t run with my friends and family…a time I had to go as a spectator…

And when you can’t do something for reasons out of your control, it makes you strive to do things you might not necessarily LIKE to do just because its something you CAN do!  In 2010 these ladies participated in the Surf City Half Marathon in honor of me…Mom walked and finished with pride…I was SO proud of her (even though I was NOT feeling well that day!)

Mom finished and handed her medal over to me…which in turn I gave back to her since she so deserved!! She walked 13.1 miles like a champ…they all did! I love these ladies for that!

Since in 2010 I wasn’t able to participate, I made it a goal to do it the first year I was healthy enough to….and the following year it happened…

All the support was amazing during my first half…missed you LOADS today Trish!!!! She had my ass running during Surf City like I never knew I could run. She would have gotten me to finish earlier if she was with me today…thinking about you girl over in Afghanistan. I admire you and all your do for our country!!

So another half marathon in the books…think I’m done with them now (I’m saying that now as my feet and knees are throbbing and I’m sipping my wine!!) Looking forward to running a few 10ks (which is only 6.2miles)…thats about the perfect distance for my non-running ass!

And I stole these off the website…hence the shitty quality. That might be illegal…oops.

…and what run is next you ask…a 10k in Galway Ireland in June! THEN a 10k Pinkest Run Ever in Santa Barbara in September (I’m buying a freakin’ sparkly skirt for that one!!). What the heck am I thinking….lol Guess it keeps me pretending to be in shape. haha