My Success- 13.1!

Oldest ds is a cross country runner in high school. He heard about a half marathon in Yellowstone. We have a cabin near Yellowstone, and go there often, its a home away from home for us. So Oldest ds convinced me to run the Yellowstone Half Marathon with him. After losing weight, and realizing it was something I could maybe do. After 9 months of training, our big half marathon race was Saturday! It was a beautiful morning, my SIL Amber also ran the race with us. We arrived early enough to get our shirts and bib numbers, and waited around round for the start time. And it was finally time to go, we lined up according to our estimated finishing time, so Micah left us, and lined up with the faster runners. Amber and I lined up with the 2:30 crew, that was the time I was hoping for- was 2 1/2 hours. I left amber after the first mile. The first 3 miles were flat and through town, then onto some xc ski trails, so quite smooth. At mile 5 we headed into the forest and it got to be a rougher trail, with weeds and rocks. Then came the hills! I just plugged along, slow and steady up the hills. Down the hills was harder than I expected, it was rocky terrain and tough running, around mile 8 my left knee was really hurting from the jarring of downhill. Luckily it did flatten out a bit then. There was another good hill at mile 10- and a very painful downhill after that, but then I hit the aid station at mile 12- and I knew I could finish it, and checking my watch, I could finish in under my goal if I pushed it a bit. I got close to the finish line where our families were cheering us on with signs, and my oldest ds (who had finished a long time ahead of me) came and ran through the finish line with me. With tears in my eyes as we finished this journey together. It was awesome. My time was 2:26:56- just 3 minutes under my hoped for goal. What a feeling if accomplishment! Just 18 short months ago, I was 68 lbs heavier, and couldn't run 1/4 a mile. And here I was - running 13.1!

Micah (who I knew was fast- but not that fast!) placed 2nd in the 15-19 yr old men age group, and won a silver medal. His time was 1:48! Amber came in at 3:08!

attempting to add a pic. But for some reason they are all tiny!

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