A little after the fact but still...

So I'm a little late on this one but here is a little rundown of the race. Will and I stayed out on Whidbey Island that Saturday night while my mom and sister watched Jetta. We got a late start but it was okay. I started to get more and more nervous as we got closer. The Expo was cool and I saw a lot of funny shirts I wanted to get. I think the best one said "If it weren't for me, you would have no one to pass!". That one or one that said "This is my race pace." True on all accounts. So I was nervous but excited and felt pretty normal. Didn't sleep great that night, woke up about every 2 hours trying to go to the bathroom (TMI but it's important later on). Woke up excited and ready to go. Met up with some friends who were also running it and made for the starting line. Tried to use the portapotty but still, no luck. Crap I thought (no pun intended). I knew at this point I would probably need to make a pitstop during the race. Oh well. I would try my hardest to run up to and after that time and I succeeded at doing that. I had to stop around mile 5 but I did in fact run until then and after it until the finish line. I had to slow way down towards the end (I was being passed by walkers) but for whatever reason I wanted to run the whole thing. I'm super proud that I was able to do it. I knew that if I walked I wouldn't be able to run again so I was good. The last mile, and more specifically the last .1 was so tough! I wanted to walk but Will caught up with me and was super encouraging and kept me going. I was short of breath at this point and had stopped having fun about 7 miles before. I'm proud I did it but still am not sure that I will do another half. It was really hard and I stopped enjoying myself about a month before and halfway through the race. It was physically and emotionally demanding in a way I wasn't prepared for. But I still can't believe I can say that I ran a half marathon. My sweet sister got my a necklace that says 13.1 on it which now hangs on my mirror and reminds me daily that I did something pretty awesome, even if I don't feel all that awesome that day. So yeah, I figured I should do a post race wrap-up. And there it was.