Looks like I made the right decision...

The whole time I was thinking about finishing the half marathon I wasn't too excited. For one because I knew I had already run 13 miles in training and for two I was jealous of everyone who was going to do the full marathon. Here is how the events took place. Last night the marathon mommies invited our group to a pasta party. It was fun getting to know everyone that I recognized from the internet. Then I met Tara at the movies. We decided to see that movie "Run fat boy run". It was about marathon training, well kind of. Anyway it was funny though. I decided to spend the night at Tara's so I could get some sleep. Lettie hasn't been sleeping well again. So Adam was nice to take care of the kids for me last night. Poor thing didn't sleep very well with Lettie last night. Anyway so I set my alarm or 4:15 am and took a shower and actually fixed my hair before a run. After seeing the myself on the news I decided to be vain and fix my hair a little. Although this didn't matter because the wind was blowing like crazy during the run. So Tara and I left her house around 5:20 am and got to the Gateway mall to park our car and ride Trax up to the start. We met up with Jen and got on Trax which was packed by the way. It seemed like it took forever to get to the bridge we finally made it and found Kera waiting for us. We got in line with a whole bunch of people in front and then it quickly filled up behind us. I think we had about ten minutes to wait to start. It was so exciting to be a part of all of the action. The gun went off and it took a little bit for us to get going but once we did it was awesome. I remember reading somewhere to start out slow because you'll want to go faster because of the adreanaline. I think we went a little too fast at first. It was such an amazing feeling everyone running with a purpose to get to the finish line. Tara and I stayed together quite a bit. We had to walk some because of our knees hurting. We would only walk for 30 seconds at a time though. Anyway we were together I think until mile 8 or 9. Tara stopped to stretch. I asked her if she wanted me to wait and she said it was ok if I kept going. So even though I was a little sad without her I kept on. I was on the verge of tears most of the run. I was just happy and amazed at myself that I was running a race with all these people. I had my ipod on but in between songs I could hear the sound of everyones feet hitting the ground. It was a wonderful sound. Thoughout the race on the streets there were a lot of people cheering us on. There was this little old lady standing on one corner smiling so big. She looked at us and said, "you are doing great, I'm proud of you". I just loved that little old lady. Of course I almost burst into tears at that point too. Last night I put "What a wonderful world" on my ipod. At aroung mile 10 it started playing. I had another moment. I think I actually had tears this time. I was thinking about how great this day was because everyone was so positive and cheering each other on. I was thinking of how great things could be if every day were like this day. Not that I could run 13 miles every day but that everyone could be this happy and positive and work together for something good. I told myself then that I would strive to be more positive and strive to let little things go and just enjoy my life. Anyway so my knee that I hurt while I was training was starting to get a little sore at mile 11, but my other knee was hurting worse. I had to stop and walk a lot. I only allowed myself 30 seconds of walking at a time. It was so hard because I was so close. So anyway I kept going and I could see the Gateway mall (the finish). I was getting really excited and told myself that once I turned the corner where all the fans were I would run like crazy to get there. When I turned the corner I saw tons of fans on either side of me. It was awesome. I heard Adam yell my name and I saw three mohawks looking at me. He shaved Ethan and Garrett's hair into mohawks and spiked Lettie's hair into one. Although I was unhappy to see their mohawks, I was happy to see that Adam didn't shave Lettie's hair too. Anyway So right at the time I saw my family, I heard tons of cheering and yelling. I was loving it thinking everyone was cheering for me. Just then I turned my head to the left and saw three Kenyans sprinting and I mean sprinting to the finish line, they were finishing the marathon yes that's right The marathon in the time it took me to finish the half. I just laughed to myself. Those guys were amazing to watch. They stole my glory. Just kidding. I decided after seeing them to sprint to the finish. It was so great. In all of my sprinting I didn't realize that I couldn't walk. I limped to find my family and wait for Tara to finish. It was an awesome feeling. I didn't think it could be so good because I only did the half but regardless I loved it. I loved the adrenaline, I loved the feelings I had while I ran with all those people. I'm hooked on that feeling and I want to do more. Tara came in and we went and got free massages. I was limping around the whole time. She was fine and she was the one that had worse problems than I did. What a punk. Anyway while I was getting my massage the man told me that it felt like I had torn something in my leg. So yeah great huh? I was wise in just doing the half instead of the full. I decided that I will start training again in December for the SLC marathon 2009. Yippee. I now understand why people like doing these things. Oh what a feeling!!! There are more pics to come but here's a few of my mohawk kiddies.