Before Riley deployed in October we made a list of goals we wanted to accomplish over the next eight months. One of my top goals was to complete Nashville's Country Music Half-Marathon.
I wasn't able to do much running during this pregnancy with Saedi, but when Saedi turned 4 weeks, I started running again whenever I had a chance (2-3 times a week). At that time, I felt like completing 13.2 miles was too big of a feat, and I almost gave up on my goal.
Miraculously, Riley came home early from Iraq, and that allowed me to commit to a training plan & run more because he could watch the girlies. Also, my friend, Kristen committed to watching the girls for me once a week during my long runs. That said, with God's grace & everyone's encouragement I decided to register 2 weeks ago.
After 8 weeks of running, I'm happy to say that not only did I run the entire half-marathon on Saturday (Apr 26), but I ran faster per mile than I had trained. I finished in 2:15:57. I came in 4,516 for the women and 9,338 overall. What blows my mind is that the fastest marathon runner (a man from Kenya) finished in 2:14:27...that's faster than my half-marathon time. Amazing what the human body can do!!!
If you'd like to read more about Nashville's Country Music Marathon, check out www.cmmarathon.com. There were more than 30,000 walkers/runners and it was definitely the most crowded race I've done. It was wonderful having bands playing throughout the race and tons of people cheering the entire time. Thank you Riley for cheering with our daughters and being so supportive. Thanks, Nat, for letting us use your rain cover for the stroller! The rain stopped just before the start of the race, and it was cloudy and cool for the entire race...perfect!
2 comments:
Congrats and way to go! A super mom getting out and doing her thing is always an inspiration! We are so glad to hear that Riley is home with all the women he loves! So glad you guys joined the blogger bandwagon!
Michelle, you're makin us look bad over here. Sheesh!
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