For the second year in a row, I participated in the Aramco Houston Half Marathon. Now don’t get me wrong–I’m not a runner. Never have been and probably never will be. You see, I got the idea last year from my friend Megan. She got the idea to run in the half marathon from someone else, told me about it and I thought: “Hey, I can do that.” I trained with Houston Fit for several months and the 2009 race went fairly well considering it was my very first one. I did, however, promise myself I wouldn’t do it again. Ya know, it’s one of those bucket list type things. Been there, done that.
That was, of course, until I registered for half marathon #2 on July 17, 2009. Yep, I signed up to do it all over again. I mean, I’ve done it before–how hard can it be? Let me be the first to tell you–VERY HARD. This time I trained on my own. No Houston Fit, no running partners, nothing, nada, zilp, zitch. Just me and my handy dandy iPod, cool new kicks complete with Nike Plus and new running gear. The first three months were pretty easy. I kept up with the Houston Fit schedule and woke up bright and early every Saturday to do my long runs. To be honest, I even surprised myself… Then the winter came.
Granted I live in Houston, which means I pretty much have nothing to complain about when it comes to winter. But running at 6 a.m. in spandex is cold–really cold. I bundled up and kept up the running and before I knew it, it was Jan. 17. RACE DAY.
The weather was beautiful, the course was packed with people, the energy was up and everyone was ready to run. Then it happened. The gun went off and the race began… The excitement was so contagious and the first seven miles seemed like a cinch. In fact, I don’t think I even broke a sweat! Then around mile 10, BAM. Legs hurt. Can’t breathe. Want to stop running. Oh. My. Gosh. Somehow I pushed through the pain until I saw a huge sign up ahead that read “1.5 MILES TO GO! YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!” That’s when it hit me: RUN LAURIE. RUN.
I sprinted to the finish line where friends and family lined either side of the road cheering, holding signs and waving runners in. Done. Phew!
I’m pretty proud to say I’ve run in two half marathons. Since race day everyone’s been asking how it went and if I want to do it again next year… Well, I’m not so sure. For now, I’m mostly just excited to have my Saturday mornings back. Ahhhh.
- L
