Half Marathon #9

So waaaay back in 2005, the year Jack and I got married, I decided I was going to train for a half marathon. I trained as well as I knew how (having never run before) and competed with my good friend Kate. It was a bit anti-climatic really because we ran in an inaugural race where it was actually a marathon relay. I started the race, running by myself, and then met Kate half way through the race to swap out our time chip and off she ran on her own. Unfortunately, it wasn't well organized for those of us just finishing the first leg and they had little water and no food for those running just finishing 13.1 miles. I was left cold (did I mention this was in December?), sore, tired, hungry and thirsty. Then I had to hop in the car and drive to the finish line to meet up with Kate when she finished. As she crossed the finish line they cheered on...Becky Brewer! Huh? I guess they missed the part where I ran the first leg and she ran the second. Oh well. It was a start. I remember thinking part way through the race, WHY did I sign up to do this?! What was I thinking? I'm never going to put my body through something like this again.

Welp...7 years later I can joyfully say that first experience did not deter me from trying again and realizing how much I actually enjoy training for and running half marathons. I have been able to run at least one half marathon every year since then and starting in 2007 I had the joy of running my first 1/2 marathon with my twin sister. We have excitedly found, planned, trained for and raced together every year since then. While we rarely actually cross the finish line together there is a delight in gearing up for and racing across the start line together.

 This past May I was able to run my 9th half marathon. I decided to change it up a bit by running a trail race. WOW. What a difference that makes. I never realized how much harder it was to trail run, and at high elevation to boot, but I definitely loved it. A nice perk was that the race was right in my home town of Los Alamos! It was a 13.5 mile rigorous and grueling course but it packed a bunch of beauty and fun along with it. We started at an elevation of 7200 feet, dropping to just below 7000' and then climbed to almost 9000'!! The up was tough but the down was a blast! Looking forward to doing this race again, possibly even next year, and seeing who else I can recruit to run with me in it! 


I'm also looking forward to running my 10th 1/2 (6th half marathon with my twin) later this year. I'm thinking we might just have to try a trail race together!

a group of us from church who ran the race!

Laura, Nate and me around mile 3!

still in really good spirits and with a lot of energy!

We finished!!