We made it!!! 13.1 miles!!!!!

So this post is a few weeks late, but Andrew and I accomplished a HUGE goal on April 6th! We finished the Olathe Half Marathon near Kansas City! We don't know of "official" times, as we arrived a few minutes late, and the chips didn't work at the starting line...UGH!... but, we are pretty sure our times were:

Andrew 1:56

Cassie 2:05

We really just had a goal to finish, but we were happy with our times.

Here we are after the run. (thanks for the pictures Jen!)

Here is us with the "happy" family. Cooper has been so cute through our training, and even ran 2 miles with us a few times! He always asks, "How was your run?".  And, "how far'd you run today?" Cutie. Kudos to the boys for spending countless hours in the mother's room at the gym. It is nice cause it is a cardio room divided by a see-through half-wall, so I can watch them. And has a big screen tv and toys. They (and I) have actually made some good friends at the gym! It helps that it is only a mile from our house too.

Here is my running partner, Jen Belardo. She is AMAZING! And I am SO GRATEFUL to have had her to do my "long runs" on Saturdays with. We stuck together the whole race too. She even took a fall at about mile 7, and it didn't even slow her down! We nick-named her "Lacey" cause she tripped on her laces. Really, I would not have been able to do it without a partner, and I couldn't have asked for a better one! Jen is my pace-setter, and has become a really great friend too. 

More details...

I started running in September, when Beckett was about 4 months old. We had just moved here, I had bought new shoes, and was really wanting to get rid of my baby weight! (Which was more than I'd ever gained!) So I started going to the gym. It was hard to be super consistent because I didn't have a plan or goals. Plus, I'd die just going 2.5 miles... and I didn't have motivation to go further or push myself. I decided to look around for a race. I'd never done one before, but knew I could do it if I had enough time to train, a good partner, a training schedule, and especially if I could get Andrew on board too! Reluctantly, Andrew said YES! I don't think either of us had run farther than 5.5 miles (except in a soccer game). But we committed, and we did it! 

Our 12-week training started Jan. 5. A perfect time to start... the new year. I asked some "experts", my sister-in-law, Brooke, and my cousin-in-law, Tiffany, for some tips. They were great to encourage me along the way. Everything was new to us... GU energy shots??? Water belts??? All of it was new to us. But, once we got into the routine, it was invigorating! It was so fun every Saturday to see your body do what you didn't think was possible. It was neat to see the transformation... and especially hear yourself say, "we only have to do 6 miles today". :)

We got a hotel in the city, and it was fun to take the kids to the pool the night before with Olive Garden take-out. Race morning, another dentist in the clinic, Mark, drove up to watch our kids at the hotel and bring them to the finish line. THANKS MARK! We were running a few minutes late, but then GOT LOST trying to find the race because of blocked off roads! Guess we should have done a run through the night before! Anyway, we started about 10 or so minutes late. The one nice thing was we were passing lots of people so we felt fast. :) AND, we even passed the pacer we wanted to stay with originally! The race was way easier than any training run, I'm sure because of the atmosphere and adrenaline. It was amazing to not even feel tired at all until mile 9. Then we tried to run mile 11-13 as fast as we could. It was so fun to see my family at the finish line, and it felt SO good to accomplish our goal!  

Some memories I never want to forget:

• Andrew was so funny one night. He said, "So I noticed today that I can't feel my stomach jiggle anymore when I run!". :) He is amazing, and I can't believe he did it all without a partner! 
• The amazing W.O.W. girls! (Women of Warrensburg Walking and Running Club). We meet every Saturday morning at 7am. They are so encouraging and such great friends. 
• The furthest training run we did was 12.75 miles. We followed a training schedule for first time half marathon runners, and I only missed 1 run (out of 48) the whole time. Thanks for the tip Tiffany! I just kept hearing her advice when I would not want to go, "NEVER miss a run!". 
  
• We kept a little better than a 10-minute pace in our training runs, and approx. a 9:54 pace in the race. 
• Getting excited about new socks and a water belt! :) Feeling silly wearing it... like I should be an expert runner. :) 
• Running 11 miles on a treadmill because we woke up to heavy snow that day.
• Driving to Olathe March 27th to pick our our race packet, and having the race POSTPONED because of severe weather! We had to wait another WEEK! Even worse, we ran 9 miles on a treadmill that day and it was horrible mentally cause we should've been running the race! We took the kids to Monsters vs. Aliens that night instead.
• Not being able to sleep on Friday nights cause I was nervous for the long runs. That wore off after the first few, but came back the night before the race. 

Overall, it was a really neat experience, and neat to have both accomplished that goal together. Andrew said he'd only do it once when we started, and he's already talking about running more. :) We may even do another race as soon as June!