The Half

I guess this might better qualify on The Preachers Wife blog but as usual the best pictures are of the preachers kids.

waiting for our time to start

On Sunday the 21st I participated in the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon here in Detroit.  It was a beautiful crisp fall morning and the whole thing was really fun.  I had been following a training program for the 12 weeks leading up to it.  A running guru called Hal Higdon has a few different training plans you can follow.  He tells you what to do everyday for 12 weeks to be ready.  I found it very helpful to have it laid out in front of me, and I was able to keep up.  So about 9 days before the half marathon I was to run 12 miles.  Me and my running partner Amy, set out to do 12 and it went really well.  Soreness, yes, but overall it felt good.  Hal said if we could do 12 on our own, then the adrenaline of the event and the crowds would get us to 13.1.

And he was right.  We got over the bridge to Canada and back through the tunnel (known as the underwater mile) and were still feeling good.  That last 1.1 miles was pretty tough but we made it!  Amy said to me "my legs are protesting this" as we got closer to the last turn, and right then we saw a guy holding a big yellow sign that said "Shut up Legs!"  We were able to run the entire race and finish standing up - that was the goal.  It took us about 2 hours and 40 minutes which is not a record anywhere for anything but we were happy with it.
 Best of all, Jeff and the boys were there at the finish line to cheer me on! The boys kept asking me if I won, and if I didn't, why I had a medal.  They are great fans! 
I do believe I will not be doing this again.  I found the training to be a lot to manage in an already full schedule.  But it was a very cool experience!