Sunburst 2014 (aka that time I ran a half marathon TOTALLY untrained)

Guys. Saturday I ran a half marathon: the Sunburst.

I'll give you a minute to process that.

What's that you ask? What was my training? I mean, I MUST have just been training this whole time and not mentioned it on the blog, right? Because I would NEVER run a half marathon under un-trained, right?

Yeaaaaaah. About that. I didn't train. Like, at all. Sure, I've run here or there since having Bailey. A few 3 and 4 milers. A 5 or 6 thrown in there here or there. Yep. That's it. Before Saturday, I hadn't run more than 6 miles since I was pregnant with Bailey. Whomp, whomp.

So, I admit, it wasn't the BEST plan to just bust out this half. And, it certainly wasn't just busted out. I busted my ass to even finish. And, that was with a LOOOOT of walking. And, pain. Oh, the pain. I had forgotten just how sore you can be after a long run. I also got a huge slap in the "LOOK HOW OUT OF SHAPE YOU ARE!" face. Like, woah.

But, I got up at the ass crack of dawn to nurse Bailey and then drive the hour to the start line with this girl by my side the whole time.

 

Sadly, I WISH I had made it to this alarm. Bailey was up at 3:30am and I didn't get back to sleep. FUN.

We made our way to the start, me FREAKING out in my head that there was NO WAY I'd ever finish.

Ready, set, GO!

But, Amy and I finished.

I finished with my head held high. It was by far my slowest half.... well, ever. Didn't matter. Doesn't matter. I finished. I ran (& walked) 13.1 miles. I'm proud! Maybe even more proud than I was after my half PR (which just so happened to happen while I was pregnant too). Time/pace didn't matter. I finished. I was hurting and miserable and hot and sore, but I FINISHED.

This race holds a very, very special place in my heart. Not only was it my very first 5K and catapulted me into this crazy sport, but, more importantly, the proceeds from the race benefit the Children's department and NICU where I had Bailey and where Bailey spent 10 long days. I've run this race before. Numerous times. I had never paid attention to what cause the race supported. I just ran it for fun. My in-laws bought me this years registration for Christmas (THANK YOU!! Best in-laws evvvvver!!) and as I was reading through the paperwork, I read where the proceeds were donated to. My jaw dropped. I KNEW I would run this race, trained or not. I knew I had to. For Bailey. For myself. For the Hubs. For our family. For the other babies in the NICU. But, most of all for the doctors and nurses who treated Bailey with so much love and care and who made sure she was happy and healthy. For that, I owe them the world. I can't give them the world. But, I could run this race for them. I wanted it to be my best race ever. I wanted to win the stupid thing. Neither of those were ever going to happen. I'm not at the place in my life to PR and I'll never win a race (duh). At the end of the day, that didn't matter. I finished.

All that mattered was that I finished. Best race ever.