Half Marathon

A few months ago, my sister Jen, said she was going to run a half marathon and told me I should do it too. I've always wanted to run a marathon, but haven't ever been able to find the time to train for it. I thought this would be a perfect way to get started!

It was so fun to train together! We usually only ran together once or twice a week, but it gave us a good excuse to get together!

Tara and Jen after a very wet run!

About a month before the race, I realized it had sort of snuck up on me because I was so focused on our cruise! I started looking at the course and last year's finishing times. I got pretty excited because I realized that we could run it semi competitively! We weren't going to win or anything, but we could certainly would be in the top 1/4 for our age group!

I was feeling pretty good about that and decided to up my game! :-) I started doing some speed work to improve my times. During one of my work outs, on my last speed interval, I injured my hamstring! I thought I may have pulled it! I could hardly walk. I called Jason in tears. The race was in a few weeks and I didn't think I was going to be able to run. That night, he came home with flowers to cheer me up.

I took about a week and half off. After ice, elevation, ibuprofen, stretching, massage, prayer, determination and stubbornness, I tried to run again. I could only go about a mile before it would cramp up! Ugh! 3 more days off and I tried again. 3 miles, then cramping. 2 more days off, ice massage, stretching... 5 miles and it was tight but no cramping. I knew if I couldn't get my body to do 10 miles by Saturday, there was no way I could run in the race. Jen was so patient with me as my head pulled my body along for those 10 miles! It was slow, but I did it- well almost. I cramped up 3 houses short of our goal and had to walk, but close enough.

By the week before the race, my pace was pretty close to normal, but my hamstring was still tight and I could tell it wasn't healed. It was good enough to run though. I knew it would hurt after the race, but at least I could run! Yeah!

We looked closer at the map of our race and wondered where we could find some hills to run! Mile 6 to 8 was 880 feet uphill!!! Yikes!

At Woodward Park, trying to find some hills to run!

Finally, the race weekend arrived! We headed down to Agoura Hills on Friday to pick up our timing chips and bib numbers.

Tara, Shelley, Jen and Sherri

We checked out what we could see of our course...

It was fun talking to other race goers about the course and driving the area! There was such a fun energy about it! We found a nice little Italian restaurant for a pasta dinner, soaked ourselves in the hot tub and tried to get to bed early!

In the lobby of our hotel, race day! (Way too early in the morning!)

Some of our friends were running a different course, but both races finished at the same place. So fun! We were so excited!Jason really wanted to come and support me, but he still can't put any pressure on his leg. So, he found this handy little scooter to get himself around!! Funny how he can still find a way to ride some sort of motorized machine, even with a broken leg!Shelley and Tara in front of the start line Tossing Jen's bag to Jason as we pass by! Thanks Honey!

mile 3 and still smiling...

our trail

pointing us in the right direction

Somewhere around our 10th mile, my hamstring started to cramp up. I tried not to think about it, but it was slowing me down. Jen and I had been running together, but I told her not to wait for me if she lost me. She was in "the zone" and I didn't want to hold her back. I held on for about another half mile and then let her go. I stopped really quickly at a some sort of spray station where they spray your legs with some kind of liquid that helps your legs not cramp. I don't remember what it was called, but it actually worked for about another mile!! After that, every step was pretty painful. At one point, I was worried that my leg was going to stop taking orders from my brain! I had to keep running... I knew Jason was waiting at the finish line with a camera! Haha!

Tara, almost to the finish line!
Jen and Tara with our medals
We made it! We finished about a minute and a half apart. We were number 27 and 30 out of 96 for our age group. I think we did pretty well! The course was beautiful and VERY challenging, but fun! I want to run it again next year now that I know what I am getting myself into! (And I will have to find some MOUNTAINS to train on, not hills!)

Shelley, Jen, Talli, Tara and Jamie in the front