Mission Accomplished

Feeling good at mile 6 

Approaching mile 9, paparazzi Michael on the move

Mile 10

My parents are on the left side cheering as I am running up towards them! 

Yah, the end! Michael was an informal runner that day:) 

My other fans, the Paines! 

I realized training and racing have a love hate relationship.  You see you train 99% longer than you do racing.  Racing is only 1% of the training and you better hope in however long that race takes it makes your training look dang good!  But the racing needs the training and the training needs the racing because that is when like I said, you get to shine:) Michael asked me the night before the race, "What is going to motivate you tomorrow?" That was easy, "thinking about all the hard work I have put forth for this day the past 10 weeks."  Of course I can think this out logically before the race but little did I know I would forget the past 10 weeks mentally but not physically and focus on every mile in front of me race day.  My goal for the half marathon was not only to complete the race but to finish @ 8:30 pace the whole time finishing in 1:50 minutes.  I am the type of person who needs the pressure in order to finish well, which I guess worked!

The night before the race Michael's parents came and stayed with my family so they could come and be cheerleaders.  The race started at 6:30am and Michael and I strolled in around 5:45am race day (yesterday) to a sea of 13,000 people.  Yes, 13,000 people ran the O.C half and full marathon that day!  I stretched, did my business (by the grace of God before the race), drank water, kissed my biggest fan Michael, and found my pace group.  The first 6 miles were great! The adrenal glands were pumping and I was feeling good.  But after about the 7th mile my relaxed state transformed into a very tense and uncomfortable state.  Most of the battle was thinking about maintaining my pace from the last mile, no where in sight were those motivational images of me running during training days, all I could think about was maintaining.  My little angel Michael found his way on the course periodically throughout the race completing a 10k that day:) He was my photographer  & very encouraging! I loved having my parents and in-laws there that day as well as I was looking forward to seeing them at mile 10.  Seeing the clock as I approached the finish line was glorious because I fought for my goal pace and time and achieved it! One of the things I have learned through this process is to never short change myself because I think I cannot do something.  And not just to do it, but to do it well.  I am already contemplating what my next race adventure will be...Lord willing:)