I Did It!--The ScoutStrong Half

This morning I ran my first half marathon.  If you ask me right now if I will run another, I would say HELL no!  Today's race was brutal.  The combination of hills and wind made the experience somewhat miserable.  I distinctly remembering saying many choice words as I was running up a hill into a wall of wind.  After the race, I avoided the camera like the plague because my hair was so wind blown I looked like a complete mess.  I felt my time was pretty good considering the weather and course conditions, but IF I ever run one again I would hope to be around 2:05 or under.  I ran with the 2:10 pace group for about 4.5 miles and then broke off on my own a bit.  It was so congested because they started the 5K runners with the half runners, so I was glad to break away and rock out to my music.  I felt pretty good for the majority of the race (even considering) but around mile 10.5-11 I started to get really tired....like so tired I didn't want to finish.  After giving myself a pep talk (basically me telling myself--"self, suck it up!  There are people suffering all over the world much worse than I am suffering right now...") Somehow my little pep talk worked and the race was finally over!!  I finished in a little over 2:07, but somehow never managed to see the 2:05 pace group...were the paces a bit off possibly??

In honor of Mother's Day tomorrow I wanted to share a little graphic art piece I created for my mom.  She is so wonderful to me and truly my inspiration for running at all.  Two years ago in August my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and it totally rocked my world.  I was pregnant with Mia at the time and overly emotional as it was, then to add this to it I was literally a mess.  Although, I never really showed it to my mom! :)  Today, she is cancer free and just had her LAST surgery for her reconstruction!  Alleluia, praise Jesus!  But her road to this point was grueling with surgeries, chemo and radiation. It was a long road to this point. Throughout all of this, mom was a total rock star. She had good days and bad, but she was always strong.  He favorite new quote, "It's all good!" And it was.  She is the most mentally tough person I know, and today as I was feeling pretty tired on the course, I thought of her and knew I could finish the damn race!  So glad this Mother's Day we can move forward and look to the future and all that it holds for our family. In honor of my mom, I've created a poster listing 10 things I've learned from my mom, although there are many, many more than 10 I thought these were pretty good!  Love you, Mom.  Happy Mother's Day!

Talk soon,

Brit