(Half) Marathoned my butt off!!!

So I did it!  And it's done!  So many reasons to celebrate today. 13.1 miles complete in a grand total of 2 hours, 32 minutes.  If you're interested in doing the math, that's average about an 11 1/2 minute mile, or about 5.2 miles an hour.  It was a smidge disappointing, I'd set out with the goal of finishing in less than 2 1/2 hours, and at mile 8, I was less than 90 minutes in, which would have got me to the finish line with time to kill.  Unfortunately, time rolls on, and legs, it would seem, fill up with lead.  But I made it, I never stopped running, and I believe there were a fair amount of people who finished behind me, so basically folks, I'm good!

The run was I believe what they call an out and back, meaning  we had about 4 opportunities to run up and down different country streets and past the people who were faster, and then slower than us.  All in all, there were tons of trees, loads of shade, breeze, tons of people clapping for and cheering you on, and to top it off, tiny cups of water you could drink and then just throw on the ground. Yay littering!!

Oh, and also, I'm in CRAZY amounts of pain.  On the way out of the park, I passed a girl I'd run with for a bit towards the beginning of the race and she recommended taking an ice bath to get rid of some soreness and cramping, so I decided to give that a try.  As a side note, submerging your already sore, achey, and chill-prone body, even just the lower half, into a nice tall glass of ice water makes breathing super difficult.  But in the end, if you can handle it, I believe it helps.  At least a little.  I don't have the cramping sensation running from my neck to my feet like I had all day, but my knees still feel like someone used them for a punching bag.  Or a tee, like in tee-ball.  But they're really bad at tee-ball.

In the end, they gave us all a medal, and I wanted to vomit.  Not because I was unhappy with the participation award... I kind of like the participation award, it made me feel good about myself.  I wanted to vomit because that's what your body wants to do when you spend all morning subjugating it to torture.

This is getting long, and I'm getting tired.  I must preserve my fingers, the last portions of my body which don't make me want to cry when I move them.  Pictures to come soon!