Geist Half Marathon

Everyone who knows me, knows I love to run. I however do not like to run road races-I think it's a combination of the money involved, all of your training depending on how you feel on that one race day, my nerves and my perfectionist personality. All that put together, I don't like the pressure. However, when one of my good friends decided that she wanted to train for a half marathon , she said she needed someone to train with and I decided to join her.We recruited several more friends from church, trained for the last couple of months and completed the half marathon on Saturday. We drove up to Indianapolis on Friday night, had a good dinner and spent a few hours sleeping in the hotel before heading out to the race on Saturday morning. It was really nice to have a girl's night and I'm so grateful that Pat was willing to watch the kids ( although, about 4 miles into the race I was thinking it sure would be great to have Pat and the kids waiting at the finish line )

It turned out to be a perfect day for running and I was feeling really good physically, but quite nervous. I had to keep telling myself that it was only another "run" and not a "race", because a race seems like there is too much on the line (and let's be honest I don't have a chance in heck to win or even come close to winning something like this!)

Once we were off and running, the nerves faded away and I felt really good. My first couple of miles were slower than I wanted them to be, but once I got past the crowds of people at the beginning, I was able to pick up the pace. At around mile 9 1/2 I started to feel a little bit tired and discouraged, but made myself keep moving along and around mile 10 1/2 or 11 I was starting to feel good again. I didn't finish the last 1/4 mile or so as strongly as I would like to have, but overall I felt like it went well. I was shooting for 1:45 and came in at 1:42:19, so I was able to meet my goal...now I'm trying to decide what to do next. Try to cut a few more minutes off of my time for the half? A marathon? Start doing triathalons? I need a challenge, but one that I can train for while being a mom of small kids and spending some time with Pat...Any suggestions?

A couple of us after the race...why didn't someone tell me my hair was out of control?????

I've been feeling very blessed over the past several days to have a strong, healthy body and such great friends who are amazing examples to me and push me to do something out of my comfort zone.