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last year, pj convinced me that we should run a half marathon. which basically equals run until you are more than half dead.
and by convinced me, i mean that she mentioned it a few times, and i gave a vague reply, and then she called to tell me that she signed us up, and don't waste her registration fee money. or something.
anyways. i had about 3.5 months to prepare. i ran a few 4 milers, and a few 6ers. and then suddenly i only had 3 weeks left!! so i went on a running binge and jumped from a 6er to a 9.5er. which is bad. every running magazine/pro/whatever says to never increase your distance by more than 10%. oops.
i figured that 9.5 was close enough to 13.1 and that i'd be fine. ok, well right after my 9.5er, i figured the next week, at sissy's we could do 11, and then i'd be 2 miles away and be just fine.
that didn't happen. it took me the whole week and a half to recover from my 9.5er.
then suddenly it was race day and i was standing in a giant crowd of people about to pee my pants or cry or throw up. or all three. and then the music started. literally. this guy near us was wearing a back pack boom box. have you ever heard of one of those? me neither.
and then we started. and i think i did like an 11 (or maybe it was 1130?? i can't remember) minute mile. for the first half. and i was still going strong. and then the 11 mile point hit. and i wanted to quit. but i just kept telling myself that it's only 2 miles. its only 20 minutes.
and then we got to the real 11 mile point. and i started crying. burst into tears is really more descriptive, i guess. all the people around were all crazy, yelling "DOES SHE NEED AN AMBULANCE. IS SHE OK." and it was kind of embarassing, but everything just hurt and i had tricked myself into thinking i was almost done, and instead of 20 minutes left, i had 27 minutes left. so then sister made me eat some runny bears (named by my daddy: like gummy bears but for running. and they're square) and then i thought i could do it.
and then i started crying again at 1 mile. and i had to take my socks off. because they were hurting my feet so bad. it sounds weird. but they were sliding down around my toes and bunching and giving me blisters.
and then when i started again, sister said we had to get some gatorade, but i couldn't stop or i would never finish. so i poured yellow gatorade down my front and tried to catch a few drops on my tongue.
and then i was running as fast as i could because i saw the end and everything hurt and i was sick of my stupid hat and i was sick of my cool dress that was not so cool to run in because it would slide up all the time (over my running clothes, that is)
and then it was the end. and sister got 1 second faster than me but i placed ahead of her. HAHAHA
we finished in like 2:38:something. and i was dying. all my muscles were seizing. i had at least 8 blisters. this is not an exaggeration. and sister looked like she just had a refreshing shower and brunch. jerk.
and this was the end: i wore my medal for the rest of the time i was there, i think..
good thing i took my hat off. when i saw pictures from the event, i finally realized just how stupid it really was.








