Finish Line

Okay, for the two people who read my blog... I ran a half marathon on February 23rd. I started running a year before this and I never thought I could ever run 13.1 miles.

It was amazing. The training was great and taught me a lot about discipline. I was amazed at how much my physical body could really handle. My wonderful husband ran the whole way with me, and he barely broke a sweat! He was cheering me on the whole way. He even talked on the phone to let our friends and family know where we were in the race.

During the first 6.5 miles everything was going pretty well. We started out with Lory, but she had to speed up because she was running the full marathon. My feet went numb at 3 miles, but that only lasted two miles:) At about 6 miles I saw someone dressed in black standing in the middle of the road taking pictures of me. The closer we got to him, the more I thought, "what is this crazy guy doing?" It was my brother, Tony! He was there to cheer me on. About 3 minutes after seeing Tony I got the most dreaded feeling! The Aura! Those migraine sufferers know this well. I was now on the verge of a migraine while trying to run the second half of 13.1 miles! I didn't know what to do. I very calmly told Patrick and then very calmly told him to start saying scriptures to me so I could repeat them. In my mind I knew I could not quit. I just couldn't throw away 1 year of training to the most annoying thing in the world, a migraine. The aura usually lasts about 30 minutes, but I had longer than that to the finish line. I got into the, "I'm not quiting" mode and kept going. I rounded a corner and there were four of my dearest friends (Azu, Janna, RussellAnn, and Cassia) in full out cheerleader mode! I could hardly look up, but it kept me going. I guess because of the adrenaline the actual pain help off until mile 11. At that point Patrick, still running with me, turned back to me and said, "Kelli, the really old people are about to start passing you!" I looked back and thought, "I've got to go faster!" The pain had really set in and I was going VERY, VERY slow. I tried my hardest to speed up, but my body just refused. Then, I started crying.

I really didn't think I would make it. There is absolutely no way I would have made it without Patrick. He stayed with me the whole time. He could have run the half in half the time I did, and he didn't even train for it. He kept me going. At one point he just held my hand as I was hunched over crying and doing a version of a jog, walk, trip... Then, we finally rounded the last corner. I saw Vanessa and Christie cheering me on and then my mom, stepdad and brother. Crossing the finish line was great except when I looked at the time! It took me exactly 3 hours. I fell on my mom as she pushed an Excedrin down my throat. The really great thing was Patrick's med school class was in the medical tent doing OMM treatments. I stumbled in and let them get to work on my head. It was great, too bad Patrick hates OMM.

We then waited for Lory to finish the full. She did great! She finished in 5 hours.

I ran a half marathon with a migraine! I can do anything!

The morale of the story... Training is hard, its not fun to get stretched and pulled. It's not easy to think of going into something where you will be stretched and pulled. But, it feels really good when it's over. And you never want to go back to the way you were...