The Adventures of a Running Mom

This past Sunday was my half marathon.  I finished!! But I have to tell you the wonderful adventure it took to get there......


The weekend started about midnight on Saturday when I woke up to a crying two year old who was not feeling well at all.  I only got a couple of hours sleep that night and ended up taking C to the doctor.  She ended up having a huge ear infection and was put on some antibiotics.  My husband was also not feeling well at the time and my 5 year old had a cold.  After the doctor I took the miserable two year old to the pharmacy and then to my 5 year olds t-ball game because "I proooomisssed!" (Said by whiny 5 year old) After the game it was home for a half hour and then off to T's karate belt testing.  Yeah!!  She got her yellow belt!  Then it was back home again to pack up the car and drive with T and N to Chicago.  We left poor C and Daddy at home.  :( 


We made it to my sister's condo and discovered that N had a fever.  Ugh!  The sickness never ends!  I fed him dinner right away and put him to sleep so I could walk to the store to get some infant tylenol for when he woke up.  The rest of the night was pretty quite thankfully, T got to go swimming with her aunt and uncle and I got all of my running gear ready to go for the next morning.


Finally race day.......N had me up early, 4:30 am, to nurse and I wasn't able to fall asleep after that.  I was getting antsy and was just ready to race.  I got myself ready and left about 6:30.


It was a quick 5 minute walk to the race site and the park was filled with people.  I took a walk around to start warming up (it was chilly) and found my way to the 11 minute pace sign.  There I met some crazy wonderful people who all had different backgrounds and experiences.  There was the two time ironman woman, the obnoxious 56 year old who yelled over her really loud music coming from her ipod, Chuck the pace leader that offered all kinds of advice and tips, Gary the sign holder that dropped it at mile 3 and then proceeded to sing Glory, Glory Alleluia and various other songs the rest of the way, and many others. 


The race started and we set out at a good pace.  I was going to run/walk the race but I was feeling good and kept going.  I ran all the way to the turn around point!!!  It felt great running along the lake.  It was a long distance though and I felt like I was running all the way to Indiana (we could see it the first half of the race).  Thankfully we didn't and we turned around and headed back to see the skyline of Chicago.  It was a beautiful site and it motivated me to keep on going.  I ditched the run 5 walk 2 minutes strategy.  I always walked through the water stops and whenever I felt like it.  Running the first half bought me alot of time to keep me on pace with my goal of 2.5 hours.  I was feeling tired towards the end, but I kept pushing through and made it to the finish line.  I had never run farther then ten miles before and I couldn't believe I made it 13.1!!!  My official time was 2:28:35, under my goal time!  


It was disappointing to not have anyone cheering me on, I knew my husband would have been there at the finish line, but my sister and brother in law were taking care of T and N and decided to walk around instead of waiting to see me cross the finish line.  They took T to run the kids dash (if only I was a little bit faster I could have seen it!) and she will tell you that she finished 5th (more like 10th).  She was so proud of her ribbon and took it with her to school today.


After we got back to the condo I called the husband and he told me that C had an allergic reaction to her antibiotic and had to get a new one.  Oh joy!  Oh and my husband has food poisoning.  The fun never ends.


I will post pictures when I get the chance.  Marathon training has officially begun!