Good morning! We have another snow day here today. I have to be honest I LOVE THE SNOW. I mean, if it’s going to be cold, then it may as well snow. Not to mention it’s winter.

Photo(s): Winter Near Our Condo

Anyway…

In the last installment of my ‘RUNography’, I had taken the plunge and signed up for my first half marathon. The moment I submitted my credit card information, I felt a rush of excitement, followed by a sinking fear in my tummy.For the rest of that day, I kept telling  myself, OK Tara, pull yourself together. You HAVE to do this now. No turning back! Besides, I had made it Facebook official already, and didn’t want to back out and give the haters something to talk about 😉 Now that i think about it, I play the FB game a lot. Once its FB official- no turning back! haha!

I had 6 weeks to go from loving burpees to loving 10miles Saturdays.

Ouch, I hurt!

I continued to go to run club with Mark and recruited Emilie to join. Run club helped a lot. Since I never wanted to go home & had the convenience of my office in midtown, being so regimented was easy. But this also led to over training, I thought.

The dreaded shins! Yup. In pain AGAIN. I would start every run rubbing icy/hot on my shins and stopping every minute during mile 1 to rub them out. This really got me down. How on earth am I going to get thru this?  I reached out to 2 of my pals who I knew were avid runners. Gianna and Stephanie. Gianna advised to keep up the weight training and cut back on the pavement a little to avoid further injury. Stephanie said the same but also offered to train with me and help me with my form. It could possibly be i run like a girl 😉

That Saturday I headed to Staten Island for my 10 miler. Stephanie was convinced it was my form. However, once we got to running, she mentioned it may be my sneakers. WHAT?! But I LOVE my Nike FreeRuns! They’re bright pink! Never will I give up on them so I compromised… I promised to stretch, ice, and wear compression socks. YES!! These come in neon too! SWEET!

Insert new SOCK obsession.

A few hours later- I was proud to say I finished my 10 miles. It was brutal, but Stephanie convinced me that if I can run 10, then I can do 3 more.

I’d find out in 2 weeks. Fingers crossed!

Fast Forward- June 15 2012. Emilie and I are on our way to Phila to meet with JoAnna. I have to tell you, this was such a fun trip. Emilie, is just so sweet and so funny! All we do is laugh when we are together. And it was great to meet up with Jo, I hadn’t seen her since high school. When we checked into our hotel, we did as girls usually do. We played fashion show with our running attire for the half marathon. We boy bashed. And we traded funny stories about ourselves. We also couldn’t get over the phallic picture located just above our toilet bowl. Perfect location. Sigmund Freud would be proud.

Photo: UMMMMM…. Four Points Sheraton Bathroom

One of my favorite things about running, besides the bright outfit choices, is fueling. We weren’t in the center city of Phila so food wasn’t very easy to find. We ventured to a mini mall next to our hotel and opted for Mexican. I KNOW! Who does that? But I can freakishly run after margaritas and black beans, Don’t ask.

After a few laughs and a cocktail or two, we headed back to our room, joked about the phallic bathroom decor and went to sleep.

The next morning we had our trail mix and headed to Overpeck Park via school bus shuttle. Classy!

Photo: JoAnna, Myself, Emilie on the bus!

Photo: Emilie and Myself and some serious stretches!

The one thing I remember is, stretching and praying not to have a shin flare up.  REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT…

Gun time.

 

I don’t know if it was my adrenaline or the icy/hot but once I started running, it was on!

Now, if you look up Half Saur Half Kraut, it will pull up a great running organization. Uberendurance Sports! No frills, no crazy prizes… just running, friends, and beer! Yes, a German themed run club. Amazeballs!

These runners were awesome, most dressed up like yodelers and beer maids! I started to play running games with myself. I would pick out a costume and try to pass them. Before I knew it, I was at the 7 mile turn around! Poetic as it sounds, my iPod played ‘chasing the sun’ by the Wanted, conveniently at that time. Best feeling ever!  I felt like I was flying. It wasn’t long until I crossed the finish line around 2:10.

I got a pretty sweet medal, a potato pancake and a beer! Now That’s some serious swag! 🙂

 

 

 

Photo(s): There I am, finishing my first Half Marathon! note the look of relief! lol

Photo: Sporting the Medal and my Neon Free Runs! lol

Emilie and JoAnna finished shortly after. Victory was ours!

Of course I loved every ounce of the bragging rights! I called Stephanie and Gianna right away and posted every pic I possibly could on social media!

Stephanie really pushed me with this race. When I say I can’t or that I am tired, she definitely gives me that boost of confidence I need! That being said she is also the reason I have become such a Mother Runner 😉

After her countless congratulations and ‘I told you so’s, she said the magic phrase-

So when are you running the marathon?

and so my journey continues…