Run a half marathon - CHECK!!

I ran my half marathon on Sunday! With strep throat and maybe whiplash. I gotta say I'm pretty pleased with myself and think I'm bordering on rock star status because of that. All last week I was paranoid I was going to get sick for the race because my youngest had a cold, my BFF had a nasty cold, and we knew a few other people we'd been in contact with that were sick. Thursday night I thought my throat was starting to hurt, but I was trying to convince myself it was all in my head. Friday morning I woke up and knew that wasn't the case. My husband was trying to convince me still that it was just anxiety or allergies, not strep like I was thinking it was. He was going to Dallas for the weekend for the LSU season opener, so we took him to the airport then went home to pack up and head out. The plan had been for the boys and me to go to my mom's so we could leave for CA around 9:30 or 10:00. Plans changed so that I dropped my kids off at her house then went to one of the Walgreens clinics to get a strep test done. I tend to get strep about once a year, so I normally know when I have it. While I was waiting I had pretty much convinced myself it wasn't strep. It didn't hurt as much as it had in the morning, so I thought maybe it was just allergies. Even the nurse at the clinic didn't think it was going to be strep, but it was. Thankfully I knew that by day three of being on antibiotics I was usually feeling mostly normal, so I wasn't quite as worried. I figured at that point I'd run what I could, take walking breaks when I need them, and go in knowing I wasn't going to have an awesome race.

I got a little worried at the race expo because I felt pretty lightheaded most of the time we were there. Thursday night I woke up and had gotten up to shine a flashlight in my throat to check for white spots to see if it was strep, and while I was up doing that I got really dizzy. I was in my kids' bathroom and went to sit down on the floor outside the bathroom and ended up collapsing as I tried to sit down. I banged my head on the floor pretty hard, so I was worried then after feeling lightheaded Saturday that I'd end up passing out at the race.

Sunday morning my alarm went off at 3:20. I caught the shuttle to Disneyland, met up with Jen, and we headed to the race. We got in our corrals around 5:15. A little before 6:00 they had fireworks at the starting line and then the race got underway. The official start time was 6:00, but it was about 6:20 I think when we crossed the starting line. Right away, I felt awesome. My breathing was great, my legs felt great, the energy from the crowd was fantastic. We started out running on a street by the Disney hotels then around Mile 2 got into the parks. There were Disney characters all along the route, and you could stop to have your picture taken with them, but the lines were all really long. Phineas and Ferb were there, and I would have loved to get my picture taken with them, but not at the expense of waiting in line and losing time. After we ran through California Adventure and Disneyland, we went out on the streets of Anaheim. Every mile or so there were high school cheer squads and marching bands--it was pretty cool. We ran around the Honda Center where the Anaheim Ducks play, then along a river, then into Angels Stadium. We got to run on the track of the baseball field in the stadium!! It was so cool!! They had the Jumbotron camera there so everyone ended up on the Jumbotron.

The stadium was around mile 9.5 of the race. I felt great until Mile 11. Eleven miles was the longest training run we had done, and as soon as we hit it I thought "This is longer than I've ever run." I was just tired at that point. The only walking I'd done was through the water stops. I really, really, really wanted to walk for awhile, but I had made it that far without walking and only had two miles to go, plus if I kept running I'd be done a lot sooner. So I kept at it. I remembered when we got to the Disney parks initially there was a sign pointing one way that said Mile 2 and the other way said Mile 12, so I knew once we got back there we were almost done. I was so relieved to see that Mile 12 marker! One mile to go. At that point there were starting to be a lot of spectators along the course cheering everyone on which was great. I was just so ready to be done! Once we saw the Mile 13 marker, we started sprinting for the finish. It was so crazy--I couldn't even feel my legs, it felt like I was flying! Ah if only running could always feel like that.

My official race time was 2:48:32 which took into account two bathrooms tops. I have a running GPS app on my phone that I use, and I paused that at our bathroom stops, so my time on my app was 2:45:03. I was pretty pleased with that time--I had estimated my time as 2:46:00 when I registered but didn't take bathroom breaks into account. It was just so fun, and I'm so ridiculously proud of myself. Honestly running a half marathon was something I never would have expected to do. I'm already excited for the next one I'm signed up to do in January!

Here are my official stats:

OFFICIAL TIME: 2:48:32
Distance HALF MAR (13.1 miles)
Clock Time 3:05:41
Chip Time 2:48:32
Overall Place 7554 / 12785
Gender Place 4328 / 8368
Division Place 770 / 1241
Age Grade 39.4%
5K (my time isn't posted for some reason)
10K 1:17:08
15K 1:58:08