Rockford Half Marathon

This one was special.

My sister was supposed to come out two weeks ago to run Kenosha with our group. She was originally going to run the full Marathon, but had to change to the half because she found out she was pregnant. Well, a day before they were supposed to leave to come out her whole family (minus one) got the stomach flu. So, their trip was cancelled and we were both very bummed.

After running the Wisconsin Marathon, I started looking for half marathons that night. I found one in Rockford and called her to tell her...just to share...I had no clue that she would want to do it with me. But, that's what happened...I signed up and so did she. This time, she made it out here.

We got up this morning and left the house around 5:30AM. I was not nervous at all and I slept great. Having her by my side was wonderful...although I was a little worried about her (being pregnant). On the car ride over, a bird hit my windshield and I watched the feathers fly in my rearview mirror...wondering if that was bad luck.

We found our way to a parking garage near the starting line, hit the icky potties, and took our places at the starting line. We were freezing. The horn sounded and we were off. I wanted to keep a 10:00/mile pace to meet my goal of finishing between 2:10 and 2:15. During the hilly first half of the race (where aparently my sister was cursing me) I didn't know if I could keep it up. The hills were tough and a few seemed to go on forever. We got separated at about mile 3 or 4 and I literally thought about her and prayed for her and my little niece (just a guess) the whole rest of the way.

I did just fine keeping it below my 10:00/mile pace until mile 10. I looked at my watch and saw 1:39 and just imagined The CRIM and thought of how I would be done if that was the race that I was running. Well, that's not exactly something you should do during a race when you have a bit more to go. The mind games started and my knee was killing me. It was then that I thought of my two friends Jamie (who I ran the full with two weeks ago) and Hollie (my bestest and my encourager) and told myself that I had come too far to stop. I kept truckin.

I slowed down a bit from mile 11-12. I was pretty disappointed in myself that I couldn't seem to keep my pace below 10:30. But, at mile 12 I put the pain aside and decided I was going to finish strong. I turned the corner at mile 13 and the finish line was beautiful...but, more than .1 of a mile away (turned out to be .26 according to both my Garmin and my sister's)...it was a nice sprint though.

I crossed the finish line with both of my arms in the air, a big smile on my face, with 2:13:12 on the clock, and I thought to myself, "I love running. That was a blast!" It was probably the most enjoyable run I have had. I stood just beyond the finish line and waited for my sis. Baby on board, she finished in 2:17:32...I was so very proud of her.

We were so excited to get to the start line, we paid no attention to where we parked the car...oops...eventually we found it.

It's great to have something to share with my sister...a passion that we share...memories we make together.

Calist, it was a blast. After this kid is done cookin, we'll have to do it again sometime. :-)