Half Marathon...Here I Come

Tomorrow is the big day. Training has gone really well. Throughout the last 9 weeks I have been amazed at what I can do if I will myself to do it. It has been hard at times, but I have done the training and I feel like I'm ready. Waking up at 5:30 almost every morning has not been easy at times, but it has been worth it. Kerstin and I were talking on one of runs one morning about how amazing it is that you can just tell your body to run and it will do it. You can then decide to walk and it will do it. Our bodies are amazing. I never thought that I would be doing this, but here I am running 13.1 miles tomorrow. I had a friend on the phone just ask me if I'm nervous and to tell you the truth I have had a few nervous nerves, but for the most part, I'm excited. I'm excited because I have had this goal in mind and I have worked towards it. I have found that since I have had this goal in mind, it has been easier to get up and do the training. When I didn't have a goal in mind, it wasn't as easy to get up and get out to exercise. I will let you all know how things go tomorrow.

Some other things Kerstin and I learned along the way:

- take enough liquid to last the whole run. We were sharing a camelbak at one point and we ran out of gatorade at mile 8 of 12. The last 4 miles were harder without the beverage.
- when you're driving around your city, you don't notice where the hills are...your perspective changes when you are running. The frontage road in front of Thanksgiving Point used to be a hill, it no longer is. The road leading up to the Mt. Timpanogus temple is still a hill and will always be a hill.
- goo packs, for energy, are disgusting.
- the chews that are out there are also disgusting. Choked that one all the way down.
- we much prefer energy bars as we run even though it is a little tough to chew, swallow, and run at the same time...it is much better than the alternative.
- after you have run 8-12 miles, 3 miles seems like nothing. Our last two weeks of training we have gone back to running 3 miles a day instead of 4 or 5 and when we got back we wondered if we had even run anything. It's a nice feeling.

There are many more things we have learned, but these are some
of the fun little things we have noticed along the way.

Pictures to come soon from our trip to Colorado along with some fun stories including the Attack of the Upset Bees.