It’s been a little over two years since I was able to run a half marathon. It’s not been quite five months since I had my foot surgery and when I crossed the finish line the announcer said Rachel (didn’t touch my last name) from Arnold just finished her first half since foot surgery. It was an awesome feeling to cross the line and get a medal.

I woke up at five am to be ready to run at seven-thirty. Because of the construction on fifth street in St. Charles I thought it best to park in the casino parking garage. It was a mile walk to the start line. I got in line for the bathrooms and by the time I had my turn I ran up to the start and crossed the start line within one minute. Runners are always fun to talk to and in the bathroom line these two younger girls were doing their first full. They had bought into the hydration theory and the red-head had sucked down like 24 ounces of water and was working on Gatorade. She was doing the potty dance for fifteen minutes and was considering just peeing her pants. When they ran past me she said I wish we were running with you. Me too, sister, me too. And for the first five miles I was thinking about running a full in the spring.

When I first signed up my goal was to finish and then I signed up for Vegas race and realized I need to finish in three hours or less to have time to shower before we hit the road for six hours. (I know I will just ask for a late check out so I’m not pressured). However my friend Shelly wasn’t able to walk it with me so then I set a goal of less than three hours. I would have succeeded if I hadn’t had to wait for a bathroom for five minutes at mile four. It was my turn to do the potty dance.

Around mile six and seven we ran through new town. I finally realized it makes me think of the houses from the movie Edward Scissorhands. I even saw a dinosaur statue which would have been way cooler if it were a shrub. So I was trying to pick out which house he would stay at. And this folks is what I think about to get through this.

Well mile 9-10 was the horrible hill that is like three of mine. It goes on and on and on but after that it’s a nice downhill. I decided I was running the last mile straight and texted Meg to tell her so that I would do it. My last mile was a 12 which is pretty good for an average pace of 13:45 for the entire race.

I’ve been a little hard on myself for missing my goal by a little under two minutes. I have to tell myself to knock it off. I just had major foot surgery and only been back running for 14 weeks and started with 1/2 mile at a 22 pace. But you know my motto: the faster you go, the sooner you finish.

Mole moral:Never park a mile from the start. The walk back to the car seems like it’s 20 miles long and dying seems so much easier.