Run Like a Girl.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1

13.1 Miles? Yep.

Looking back, four months is really not sufficient for taking on a run like this. I guess it might be if you plan to walk part of it or if you have a significant base built. I don't fall into either of those categories. I have never been a runner or any other kind of serious athlete. I would call myself athletic. I enjoy sports and can perform moderately well at most of them. I can hit a ball, catch and throw. I can play volleyball to an extent, and I enjoy playing kickball, flag football or whatever when we get together with a group of friends. In high school, I was a cheerleader. We competed so we had to have enough of a cardio base to get through about a 5 minute routine with dancing and in my case, lifting. We had to weight train and run about 2 miles a few times/week. So, It's safe to say that although I may have looked fit, I have never been what I would now define as "in shape."

All that being said, I set out on this mission with one goal...to run the whole thing. Aside from about a 20 second stop to stretch my knee, yes, my knee, I ran the whole thing. There were moments when my speed may not have been classified as running but I kept to the course laid before me. I ran with another girl, Jen. She is a teacher at our kid's school. She went out pretty fast. To be honest I thought I was going to have to let her leave me if I was going to finish the run. I never would have paced myself that fast if I were running on my own. Into the 10th mile, I was glad we had gone out so fast because my speed was steadily declining and my knees were more than feeling the pain of all the hills I had not trained for.

There were 4 long, winding over passes in addition to two pretty steep hills we had to conquer. They were spread throughout the course and there was one in the last 3/4 mile. We started outside of EPCOT and ran about 3 miles to Magic Kingdom, down Main Street, through Tomorrow and Fantasy Lands , around the castle, and through Frontier Land out the back past all the floats (not so magical in the daytime) and just kept running until we were back over by Epcot where we ran around Spaceship Earth. At this point, my watch was telling me I had just 1/2 mile left so I started running hard. I got to 13.1 miles according to Garmin and there was no finish line in sight! I yelled to one of the workers on the side line, "WHERE is the FINISH LINE?" I still had 2/10 of a mile...quite deflating. Never the less, I made it. I ran across the finish to the sight of my husband, all of my children and my mom and Joe, who all surprised me by buying their way into the finish line stands...all wearing "cheer squad" t-shirts and yelling encouragement to me! Andy was also there in the crowd. My official chip time was 2:28:38. BUT, I ran an extra 2/10mi. So, I actually paced 11:09/mile...only 9 seconds off what I wanted to pace in my "for real goal" which I kept to myself until now. My *NEW* goal is to do this race each year and, by the time I am 35 be able to run it pacing 9:30/mile.

I have to give props to Lisa who also ran but left us in the dust! And, I leave you with this:

"Toenails are indeed for sissies!"