Helvetia Half Marathon.

Way back in April, Ashley asked if I'd like to participate in the Helvetia Half Marathon with her. I thought, 'Hey, why not.' I started speed walking every morning and kept increasing the distance every week. I felt like I kept training even while we were in England because we walked so much while we were there.

So, the night before the race, which was held June 13, Ashley took me around the course so I could see what we got ourselves into. I pretty much started hyperventilating when I realized how many hills there were. Especially this one GIANT hill around mile 4.

Well, we headed to the stadium around 6:30 a.m. There were so many people, it was kind of stressing me out. It started raining while we were waiting for the race to start, but it soon passed. The weather ended up being perfect. It was cloudy so I never needed to wear my sunglasses and it never got too hot.

It was a frenzy going across the start line, so we started running with everybody at first to try to get out of the pack. We found a good pace and kept at it. I started stressing out the second we turned the corner and saw the giant hill. At that moment, we both turned on our i-pods so we could concentrate.

By mile 7 I thought the race was never going to end. My hips went out at about mile 8, and I felt like mile 10 was much longer than the rest. By mile 12, I was thinking, 'I want to call mom and tell her where I am!' I didn't have my cell phone, so I couldn't call her.

In the mean time, I didn't realize that mom and Emily were driving down Hwy 26 trying to find me on the side of the road. The course runs on a country road parallel to the highway. They went back and forth and back and forth until they finally saw me!

I thought I had heard honking while I was on that stretch of the race, but I never thought it was for me. Mom said later that they were honking and yelling out the window at me. They are so surprised they didn't get in a car accident. They were going 40 miles per hour on the highway trying to get my attention. . .I'm sure there were many annoyed drivers! :)

When I got to mile 12, I decided I was going to run the last 1.1 miles. I started running and saw some very familiar people turning the corner. Mom and Emily found me on the road behind the stadium and were walking on the sidewalk. I was so excited to see them. They took lots of pictures.

Over the next few days my hips were killing me. I had a blister next to my big toe, but I got over that pretty quick. Before the race, I thought I would only do this once, but after the race (besides the pain) I realized it was fun! I would totally do it again. There is a 5K coming up in August that I'll do and I'm going to run the whole thing. Running 3.1 miles is so easy now! Over the next couple of years, I'll work my way up to running an entire 13.1 mile half marathon . . .but that's going to take a while. :)