Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

On Sunday, May 1st, I woke up at 4:30 to prepare for my first 1/2 marathon! I did not let the freezing cold conditions or pouring rain stop me...although I severely wanted to! I felt like I had been training for this day for forever and it was finally here! My hubby and I headed downtown at about 5:45 a.m. only to find out the race had been pushed back until 7:00 a.m. due to lighting. I am not going to lie...it was so miserable out that I thought several times about just going home and throwing in the towel. I mean, who wants to run in soggy shoes?!?!? But as the gun went off I got in my zone and just started to run. One of the most motivating factors that got me through this race was my sweet husband! He made stops along the course to cheer me on! That is TRUE LOVE right there! Plus this kept me running because I never knew when he was going to pop up and I would have rather dropped dead than let him catch me walking ;)

To my surprise I found the 1/2 to be much easier than I thought it was going to be. I was completely terrified because up to that point I had only run 8 miles...I had no clue how I was going to come up with the last 5!!!!!! It started getting a little tough for me at about mile 5 and mile 10. But through the rest of it I felt great! I ended up finishing the race in 2 hours and 41 minutes. It was about the time I was shooting for and I was honestly just proud of my self for finishing!

The repercussions of this race were MISERABLE! Immediately after I stopped running I couldn't walk. My hips were EXTREMELY stiff and my knees were screaming. It took me until today to not be sore...that is a 4 day recovery! Right after the race I said I would never do another 1/2 again but I think runner's amnesia is already setting in because I am starting to think about my next one! Only time will tell if I decide to go through with it again! For now I am just going to stick to 2-3 mile runs.

I also have to mention how AMAZING Oklahomans are. I truly felt that every person was out there "running to remember". It was honestly a very emotional race and seeing all the "In Honor" and "In Memory" of shirts really got to me. We will never forget that horrible April 19th day. I just hope people will continue this wonderful tradition of "RUNNING TO REMEMBER".