Happy Anniversary to Me!!

Hey guess what everybody?...It's now officially been one year since I became a runner....wooo hooo!!

In March of 2012, I participated in a little race on campus called "Campus on the Run".  I've done this race many times in the past, but last year it was special.  It was the first race to start off my journey as a "real runner".

Fast forward 1 year later....Look where I am now???  I'm still running.  I've changed my life, my health, and my outlook....Who knew??

I was super excited to run this race again this morning.  I was thinking...this will be a true test.  I will be able to see how much progression I have had over this last year and this should be cake.  I've been running for an entire year now..I'm stronger and I'm much faster. 

All those things are true, but I was wrong!  The race today was still hard and very much a challenge for me.  Let me explain :)

Before the race, I was talking to my friend Joe.  We were talking about our goal times and the route.  I told Joe, just follow the people in front of you....they will know where to go. The organizers of the race changed the route....what??  It's always the same route, but not today.  I didn't realize that the route had changed until after I was already running.  I was following all of the other runners in front of me and then..wait...you're all going the wrong way :(

This new route felt like it was uphill both ways (we can say that in Pullman because it's true).  I just had to say to myself...Denise, just keep going.  No matter what!  Just trudge up the hills, you can do it.

After about the first mile, I got a little tap on my shoulder.  I turned to see my friend Kristi running along side of me.  It was nice to see a friendly face.  Kristi explained that she had not ran since last October.  Her goal today was to just finish and not stop.  We looked at each other and said...we can do this!  I was happy to have someone beside me.  It's easier to keep running up hills when you have someone else trudging along with you. 

Hills are rough on my lungs.  I don't know what it is, but sometimes I feel like I can't breathe.  I have trouble getting a nice, big breath.  It happened again today.  Kristi and I were running up another long hill...I had to stop.  I just needed to catch my breathe.  I told Kristi to keep going.  I would start again in a second.

I did catch my breath and motivated myself to start again.  At this point, I only had 1 miles left.  No problem!  I didn't let myself stop again....I had to finish strong.

When I came across the finish line, I saw Joe and his son cheering me on.  I also saw Kristi with a nice big smile.  Thanks to both of you for helping to inspire and motivate me today!!

My official time was 39:38.  It's not my best 5K time over this past year, but you know what???  It's still faster than this same race last year (41:48) with what I considered to be a harder new course.

This journey has not been easy.  In fact, it's been alot of hard work.  But it's also been extremely rewarding and makes me happy.  I'm excited to see what year 2 will bring :)

Up next:  100K Relay in April....go Global Grrrrlz!!

BTW....119.81 of 500 miles are DONE!!

P.S.  Kerri...I missed you today, but I know you were there in spirit.  Run on Spartan! 

2nd Half...Success or Epic Fail?

My race swag!

Yesterday I ran in my 2nd half marathon called the Snake River Canyon.  I think this was one of the hardest races that I have done so far.  I finished the race.  So does that mean success? or was it an epic fail because my time was at least 15 minutes slower than my 1st?

The night before the race, Kerri and I made plans for the next morning.  Both of us were really nervous since neither of us felt ready for the race.  I told Kerri that we are just going to go, finish the race, and not worry about our time or anything else.  This is good advice, right?  But is it easy for me to accept for myself??

Unfortunately, it had been 3 weeks since I had done any kind of running.  Let's just say that the twist and turns of life got into my way.  Hence the reason why I was really nervous.  Before my first half marathon, I had only had 6 weeks of training and I was able to run the entire race without any stopping.  I didn't realize then that that in itself was a pretty amazing feat.  I do now!!  This time around, I kept telling myself...."It's ok Denise. You can do it!  You have a solid running base now.  No problemo!"

My husband drove Kerri and I to the race.  During the ride, we just talked about how we could do this.  Tried to calm our nerves.  I knew Kerri was prepared whether she realized it or not.  That woman is a spartan!!  (Fyi...she beat her time for the last half....I'm so proud of her)

About 2 minutes before the race.

We saw a few familiar faces before the race and were ready to go for it.  The race started and off we went.  My first song of the day was "Thunderstruck" by AC/DC...good beat to start running to :)  I turned to Kerri and said....see you at the finish!

I was pretty solid for the first half of my race.  One of my favorite parts of the race is when I begin to see the people in front of me coming back.  This let's me know that I'm closer to the turn around point and I always get extra energy from high fiving my friends.  This time I got to see an old friend from growing up (great to see you Jackie), Jake, Kerri, Angie, Cassandra, and Mirenda....Yay!

So all my friends were past me and then things started to go a little off track around mile 7 :(  I let myself walk (which is a HUGE no no in my book).  After that, I had a really hard time getting back on pace.  I think my splits speak for themselves:

• Mile 1 - 11:15
• Mile 2 - 12:01
• Mile 3 - 12:13
• Mile 4 - 12:31
• Mile 5 - 12:36
• Mile 6 - 12:38
• Mile 7 - 15:12
• Mile 8 - 14:41
• Mile 9 - 15:28
• Mile 10 - 15:42
• Mile 11 - 17:12
• Mile 12 - 17:36
• Mile 13 - 14:43
• .1 - 0:35

Do you see what I'm talking about now???

Around the time I started walking, I spoke to this nice woman in teal.  We encouraged each other on and off during the race.  In the last mile, I caught up to her again and said...let's run, we can finish this! We did it together.  Here we are finishing the race.....

I met some really nice people along this race who were so supportive.  Thank you for cheering me on and all the "good jobs" always help :)

At the end, Kerri, Cassandra, my hubby, and our friend Scotty were there to support me and say "Yay, you finished!!"  I don't think I have ever been so happy to be done....whew!  I really liked the part where I got to collect my medal :)

Ok....so back to the title of this blog post....this was a hard race for me.  I was disappointed in myself for walking so much.  I had a very slow time and I'm kind of thinking that maybe I should stick to 12K maximum for my race distance.  Was this race a success or an epic fail?

I've realized that not every race will be easy and I won't always have PR's, but I finished 13.1 miles yesterday.  That has to be a SUCCESS!!!