Rodger & Cortney: My First Half Marathon-June 9, 2012

12 weeks of training and the day has already come and gone. Looking back, it went by so fast. When I injured my foot playing indoor soccer, I was 2 weeks into training and all I could think about while laying on the floor, not able to feel my entire leg at all, was my half marathon. I was so devastated. I understood that I was ahead of my 12 weeks training but with this being my first big race and half marathon, I was thrilled about being so ahead of schedule. I am not a runner, I never understood how people could love running so much, its funny to say now, I understand why. Anyways, my foot healed greatly, I was in a boot for about 3 weeks. The boot was off for a few days before we headed on our cruise in March. It still hurt at times, especially when wearing heels, but I was extra careful with it. The week we got back from the cruise, it was exactly 12 weeks away from my half. Perfect timing. I can honestly say I stuck to my Hal Higdon's training schedule 100%. I didn't run a few days because I was sick for a little bit, but other than that, I was very committed. I couldn't believe the progress I was making. Running became so easy and the distances I was going, without stopping, was a great feeling. One thing that was a little bothersome was not seeing a difference in my body. I have toned up a bit, but not as much as I would have liked. Oh well.

I had butterflies a few weeks out and the week of the race, I was completely excited and anxious for it to be here. I had zero percent nerves the days leading up to it. We stayed in Provo Friday night, because we had to board the bus between 3:30am-4:30am. The race started at 6:00am on the dot. Gabrielle did the race as well, I don't think she'll ever do one again. I told her we should do it, months and months ago, she agreed, with pressure from Cole, and was terrified up until the moment it happened. We went to Spaghetti Factory Friday evening, got our carb load in, and then headed to Provo. We picked up our packet and went straight to our hotel room. The boys left for an evening on the town, they didn't come back until 2:30am. I slept awful, just awful. It took me about an hour to finally fall asleep (totally not like me). I wasn't nervous, I was just going over in my mind how the race would unfold, how would I do, and where the crap Rodger was. 3:00am came and off we went to board the bus to take us up to the starting line. We had to wait up in the canyon by camp fires and porta potties for about 2 and a half hours. That was the worst part of the entire experience. The wait was long and all I wanted to do was take off and get running. I didn't even realize that I was sitting next to John Rhode, the Biggest Loser Season 12 winner. Once I realized who he was, we talked for a little bit and I got my picture taken with him, nice guy.

I took one last tinkle at 5:30 (I literally went 4 times while waiting up by the canyon) and Gabs and I walked down to the start line to stretch and get ready. Before I knew it, it was time to run. I turned my music on, tried to get around people to get a good pace, and lost Gabrielle in the meantime. We ran together for probably 20 seconds. My goal was to be under 2 hours. I could see the 2:00 hour pacer with their big sign ahead of me. I kept them in sight and kept up with them, until about mile 9. Everything was going great, I felt wonderful, my pace was right on track, if not better, and I couldn't believe how fast it was going. My mistake was drinking too much. I took a cup of water at every aid station, which was every 2 miles. This was a big mistake and I found that out at about mile 10.5-11. I was literally going to pee my pants. There were no more porta potties. Every single step I took I was going to explode. I was almost near tears. I kept powering through, doing everything I could to not wet myself. I feel that if this didn't come over me, I could have been near the 2:00 hour mark. In the end, I finished at 2:09:13. I saw Cole and Rodger right under the "finish arch." I smiled and ran on through, grabbed my metal, and sped walked to the bathrooms. It was so refreshing. Poor Rodger didn't know where I went but we eventually found each other, after I grabbed a Creamy, of course.

While we were waiting for Gabrielle to come through, the first marathon runner came in at 2:28:56. It was a very cool thing to experience. I got chills. Soon after, Gabrielle came running in at 2:33. I was very proud.

Our boys were such great supporters. I left Rodger a cute little note beforehand explaining where to go for the finish line and that I loved him very much so. I couldn't wait to see his face at the end. I kept thinking about that those last 3 miles.

I had so much fun. I keep thinking back on it and I loved it. I loved the atmosphere and the energy you felt. I can't wait to do more races. In fact, I just signed up for a full marathon, September 29th. I'm crazy.

Enjoy the pictures!