They said I was crazy . . . . I think they were right

People said I was crazy for planning to run a half-marathon 4 months after James was born. This is why they were right and although I plan on running more half-marathons because I enjoyed the experience, I won't ever do it again this soon after having a baby:
1. You can't exercise for the first 6 weeks. This cuts down on training time
2. You don't just start up right away-physically- where you left off before you were pregnant (at least I don't). It definitely required some gradual building of stamina and muscle.
3. There is no guarantee your baby will be sleeping through the night, which makes for a very sleep deprived mama, which leads to lack of ability to get up at the break of dawn to go running and train properly
4. Your child might hate his car seat, so even if you don't go running in the a.m. before the kiddos are awake and you decide to try and take the stroller later in the day- you still only have about a half-hour time frame MAX before said child starts screaming his head off  . .. . . . which means you end up only running 1-2 miles instead of the 5,6,7 or 8 that you are scheduled to do for you training
5. You are a slightly paranoid mother, so when you realize (months after signing up) that the race is 3 hours away and you have to be there extra early before they close the roads, which means you will be gone from your 4 month old for 12+ hours- you are more nervous about THAT than the actual race
6. It also means you have to try and pump during the week, right before the race . . . . and after.

All of this = PAIN!

Now, for the brighter side of things.

Jordon and I really enjoyed running the race together. Jordon didn't really train. He didn't run during the week, he only ran long runs on the weekends with me. Of course, him being Jordon, he can still run faster and farther than me, who sorta trained during the week. I used the Galloway method for various reasons and really liked it. It did help us keep up a 10:22 mile pace for the first 7 miles. After that, I think the lack of proper training kicked in and I had a hard time keeping my legs going at a decent pace. At 10 miles we split up and Jordon enjoyed passing people who had passed us. :) He even, and this is the truly amazing part, came back and ran the last quarter mile with me. I appreciated it even more when I realized that once you finish, it is nearly impossible to even walk you are so sore.

I am so grateful for my selfless husband who ran with me for so long. I was hoping to finish just under 3 hours. I finished 2:32 and was elated- and I have my husband to thank for it. He finished in 2:20. He claims that it wouldn't have been a whole lot faster if he had run on his own. He is more of sprinter and says he would have ran so fast the first 7 miles he probably would've puked and then run the last 6 super slow- and he claims it would have balanced out. I'm not so sure I believe him, but he sure is sweet and made a half marathon ENJOYABLE. The only true downsides of the race were the hills (there are no hills in Hilliard with which to train) and that they ENDED the race with a big hill (that was so tough psychologically) and having to wait for the bus to take us back to the finish. We waited an hour, in the cold -it snowed- not properly dressed. No wonder I am sick today. That was miserable.

I would like to run another one with a bit better training during the week. We'll see how that goes. A lot of it depends on James sleeping and not being a hater of the car seat.

All in all, it was a good experience and and even greater once because I ran it with my best friend.

And William and James were in such great hands with our amazing friends the Andersons (thanks Kellie!) and the Sandbergs (thanks Carrie!) who watched our kids from 7am to 7pm. You guys are awesome!