Ramblin' Rose Half Marathon!

Since I have had a baby, getting back into running shape has been a big goal. My ultimate goal is of course the Disney World Marathon in January 2012 and I can't believe that it is only 3 months away! Lily and I run at least 3-4 times during the week and then we always run on Saturday with Bob. It really has become a great routine! So in an effort to get myself in shape and set some distance goals for myself, I registered for the Inaugural Ramblin' Rose Women's Half Marathon! I have had it in my sights for a long time and I was etra excited when my sweet friend and running partner Grace decided to sign up for it too! We have had it as a goal for ourselves and we feel so good being able to run the distances with a 6 and 11 month old waiting at the finish!




So with all of the running that I have been doing, I could not wait to run the half. You can imagine how upset I was when I woke up on Friday to excruciating pain in my hip joint. We are talking couldn't walk up the stairs pain. YIKES! I have no idea what I did, but it was miserable! I went to the chiropractor and she instantly recognized it as the periformis(sp?) muscle. Basically it runs through your behind and around your hip. When it is inflamed it causes pain literally all down your leg. Awful! On Saturday I stretched and iced, took advil and iced, stretched and sat and iced all the while praying that I would be able to run come Sunday. I woke up Sunday to my hip feeling "better" so I headed to the start line. So long were my goals to run it under 2 hours, I was just going to finish.......I hoped!

We all are officially MILA sponsored athletes, so we all donned our apparell, bundled up the little babies and headed up to Durham! Sebron was on Baby Duty and turned out to be excellent runner support as well!



Bob ran the entire race completely barefoot. He was one of only 50 guys registered for the half and led the pack with ease.


Grace and I started together, but separated in the middle when I had to stop and stretch the hip. I felt really great through the first half, but I angered my hip in the last half of the race. So I had to slow way down. To compound the hip was the fact that the entire race was hills. There were literally no flat parts, you were either going up, or down. All I can say is that it is a good thing I push a baby up the hills around our house. WOW. I pushed through the pain and crossed the finish at 2:02. Just can't get below 2 hours. Someday....


We all finished strong and grabbed our medals with pride!




The kiddos were awesome, but very hungry and tired by the time we were all done. The race really was spectacular and quite an accomplishment to be sure!