I did it!!!!!!!!!!! Pushing my kid!!!!!!!!! 14 minutes faster than I thought I would!!!!!!!!!!!!
And it is over!
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| Race Day SWAG |
The First Annual 'Lauren Maleski I'm too Cheap to Pay for a Half Marathon Half Marathon" is over. This past Saturday me (and Maddox), Hot Papa, and four other guys hit the pavement at 7:30 AM and ran our hodge podge half-marathon. We even had a water table set up at the 5 mile mark thanks to some forward thinking on the part of one of the runners. Having a water table with a homemade sign that reads "water for the half-marathon"placed in someone's front yard kind of makes us a big deal.
I made goodie bags and quasi-medals for all participants and even included a turtle figurine for the slowest runner. I coined it "the slow poke" award. I picked a real cute wooden turtle for this because I knew I was going to be the winner of said award and I liked it. I also made t-shirts. Nothing says I'm a runner and you should know it like a race t-shirt. You know those people who seem to have endless supplies of race t-shirts? They kind of annoy me. It's like saying, "yep, I got up at the butt crack of dawn to go be awesome while you slept and then ate pancakes." The shirts I made are totally tacky and with a side of white trash. I don't know that anyone will ever wear those but that's not the point. I was trying to be official with absolutely no budget. So get of my back!
I've been training for this stupid run since November of last year. I had to take a hiatus in March with the flare up of my unwelcome yet perpetually invited old friend Anorexia. Initially, we were going to do this in April but I couldn't. I had to exercise other parts of myself during that period and part of that was letting go of training until I could do it in a healthy way. I think that's the biggest victory for me in all this. I maintained a healthy weight and only dropped a couple of pounds the last week. That wasn't on purpose. All that running just catches up to you. That evening I had a huge dinner and drank 3 glasses of wine and then filled up on leftover crappy Halloween candy. IT WAS AWESOME!!
I wish I could tell you I had some sort of revelation during the run...but I didn't. I remember thinking around mile 10 that this isn't so bad. Immediately followed by the thought that I know this feeling isn't going to last. I'm going to hate this again at mile 12. I kind of did hate it again but then I knew I had only 1.1 miles to go and that's nothing. After a few days of reflection, here's what I can say about the experience:
- I'm glad I did it
- I'm also glad it's over
- I think I want to run 15 miles
- I know I DON'T want to run 26.2
- I'm incredibly thankful for a child who likes the jogging stroller
- I'm super blessed to have a husband who caters to my whims and joins in
- I'm also super blessed to have the Smiths! You should know Jared and Sarah.
- Mind games are what got me through
- I am goal oriented (aka, I don't know what to do with myself at the gym now)
- If I put as much time into my spiritual walk as I did running...
- I detest feeling hungry and don't like to feed myself (aka, I have to be counterintuitive in order to successfully train for long distances and THAT's OKAY)
- I like making awards
- I really like bluegrass music for the first 7 miles and then booty music for the rest
- Gina, Curt, and Sharon should have totally been there
- Living in FL has it's advantages: flat roads, good folks, cooler mornings
- I really like November
- Moleskin works!
- I'm super proud of my nasty callused toes
- There's absolutely no reason to pay money to run
- I should have taken before and after pictures but by the time I was done I just didn't care
- Why do people always look cute in their after pictures? I looked like crap.
All in all it was a good day.
