13.1 miles - CHECK!

On 10-10-10, I achieved a goal that I'd been dreaming of for several years--I ran a half marathon. I'm not a hard core runner, but it has been a good stress reliever for me since becoming a mommy. My friend Sarah and I learned of the first ever Prairie Fire Marathon that was going to held in downtown Wichita back in the spring, and we finally convinced ourselves to register for the race.

The event was huge--about 3,400 runners, tons of vendors, live music, thousands of supporters lining the streets cheering us on. Such an incredible experience. We stayed in Wichita the night before since it was going to be a very early morning. We met our friends Chad and Emily downtown around 7am and psyched ourselves up for this major task. I don't have any pictures from during the race, but Sarah's cousin Amy was kind enough to take a few before and after the race. I'm not gonna lie--it was brutal. The first 10 miles were fairly easy. They had water and Gatorade stations for us about every two miles. It was fun to see all the signs people had made--people in the residential areas even set up their own water stands for us--so nice! Kids lined up to give high fives to everyone--it was all very motivating. After mile ten, my body started screaming at me. A couple miles of the course were on the brick streets of Old Town, which I did NOT love. Around that same time, I started getting very nauseous and felt like I could toss my cookies at any minute. We took a few walking breaks to get it together and I finally crossed the finish line at 2 hours, 28 minutes.

We were exhausted. The volunteers hung huge medals around our necks, we were given a finisher t-shirt and we just sat down on the concrete. I felt a huge sense of accomplishment, but also wanted a comfy bed to pass out in.

About 30 minutes later, we willed our legs to start functioning again and we walked over to the vendor tents. They had pizza, chicken wings, fruit, bagels, drinks, even a beer garden for all the participants to enjoy.

So...mission completed. I know I could have trained harder and finished with a better time, and for that reason, I would like to do it again someday. I did confirm, however, that I have NO desire to ever try a full marathon. Those people are plum crazy ;).

Big thanks to my parents and Chris for watching the kids so I could train. To Amy for carrying all of our crap and cheering for us along the course. And to Sarah, Chad and Emily for running with me--I couldn't have asked for a better group of friends to finish with!