13.1 miles completed

Stephanie and I ran a half-marathon on September 22 in Nashville.  Once we finished our master's degrees and gifted certification we decided to make a new goal that was not school-related.  She came up with the plan to run, and I reluctantly joined her.  I ran a half back in 2004, but I was younger with three less kids and plenty of spare time.  I did not honestly think I would be able to train for a half marathon this year.  We set our sights on the St. Jude Half in December in Memphis.  After we signed up for that, we found a women's only half in Nashville that benefitted the Chron's Foundation, and Steph's mom has chron's.  We signed up in June and spent three dedicated months training.  We ran our long runs together on the weekends (usually at 6 on Saturday mornings) and we ran our three shorter runs separately during the week--I ran three mornings before school, which meant I got up at 4:45.  People say I am crazy, but I truly loved training for the half and am so glad that we are running another one in December.  I feel like my life gets so busy on a daily basis that it is nice to have that time each morning that is mine.  David has been incredibly supportive and even attempted to run a couple of times with me (but quickly decided he hates running).

We went to Nashville on a Friday, checked in our hotel, and walked to a little family-run Italian restaurant that was full of runners fueling up on carbs.  We went to bed early that night because we had an early morning Saturday.  We loved the race atmosphere, but that race was hilly.  We had been warned that Nashville was hilly, and we thought we trained with lots of hills.  However, Olive Branch hills are not the same as Nashville hills, so we ran a bit slower than we anticipated.  But we finished it running, and that was our goal.  The race was fun, especially when we reached points where there were spectators cheering.  At one point, we were met by some hecklers who made derogatory signs toward women such as "The roads are safe for the next three hours."  At the end we were exhausted but elated.

We showered, ate lunch, shopped, shopped, shopped, ate supper, ate yogurt, and changed our original plan to go to a movie and instead were in our pajamas watching football in the hotel before 9:00. 
Unfortunately, we both woke up with injuries Sunday morning--my foot and her hip.  Her hip had bothered her for weeks, but my foot was a new injury.  It worried me because the pain was intense.  I have taken two weeks off and think I'm ready to run again. 

Training for our second half!