13.1

"I'm a soccer player but I ran a half marathon." I feel a little like Happy Gilmore. The most I ever ran (besides REAL sports) before this was a couple 5Ks 2 summers ago at my work.

I ran my first ever half marathon on Saturday morning in Provo. Yep, it was like 30 degrees and snowing. This race was just an "extra" race before I run the Salt Lake Marathon in 2 weeks, but I do feel a little proud of myself...but just for like a day. It's crazy how when you set a goal for yourself, anything short of that goal just won't cut it, at least that's what it's like for me. I made a goal to run a marathon about 9 months ago and have been training ever since (9 months is WAY too long, by the way). I hurt my IT band (outer knee) about 2-3 weeks ago which caused me to stop running for about a week or so. Needless to say, it made me feel really lazy. After trying to run again and my IT band hurting after about 2 miles, I decided to go to the doctor and get a cortisone shot. I ran the race and, yes, my IT band started hurting around 5 miles. Luckily, I never got a shooting pain up my leg, so I was able to run through the pain. (Man, this sounds hard core). I finished in 2:14ish....not fast by any means, but I finished.

Now, I have a few reasons for running this marathon in 2 weeks but mainly because I want to prove to myself that I can do hard things. I doubt myself a lot and I know I'm hard on myself too. That's why I let myself be proud for running the half marathon (but only for a day). :) Because the real goal is the marathon. Pray for me, because I know that's all I'll be doing during the race too.

And then I'll never do anything this stupid again.





Don't worry, Allie and Chris watched Reed Frog at home and came at the very end. He wasn't an ice cube.