the day I ran a race so hard I thought I'd die.

Today I ran the White Trails Half Marathon.  Oh my crap.  It was so hard.

On the bus ride to the start line- a lady turned to my friend and I and asked: "have you two ever run this race?" to which we answered:  "No. Have you?".  She told us she hadn't either but that she'd been warned by several friend to (please excuse my language): "watch out for the big ass hill".  Upon finishing the race I came to the simple conclusion that the entire race was one 'big ass hill'.  We ran up and up and up.  My calves screamed.  My heart nearly burst.  I thought I'd die.

My friend Kristi and I thought it would be a nice break from the kids.  A beautiful Saturday morning run.  And I suppose it was both of those things.  But it was harder than I could have ever imagined!!

I took a bunch of pics with my phone- and I think I got some pretty good shots for never even stopping to take them :)  They may be a little blurry, though!

The views were so amazing.  Most of it was under the cover of heavy foilage.  It was unseasonably humid.  I was DRENCHED in sweat.  I removed my shirt at the end and literally WRUNG it out. I'm so glad we were shaded for most of the race.  We did run across a large dam and saw some spectacular views.

Most of the race was single track trail- heavily covered in leaves, roots, and fallen trees.  I face planted it THREE times.  At some points I felt like we were running hurdles going over fallen trees.   Kristi and I have been training pretty hard- with spin classes, bootcamp, and weekly long runs.  But nothing could have prepared us for this.

Pictures don't do the steep climbs justice.  We worked so hard getting up them.  I was physically and psychologically exhausted.  Besides the full marathon I ran- this is the hardest physical thing I've ever done.  But let me toot my horn a little.  At every hill- Kristi and I attacked.  We passed person after person.  We didn't walk a single one.  And by the half way point- we were the only ones running them still.  We are convinced it's the crazy climbs we do in spin class- and the hundreds of squats and lunges we do.  The last three miles we caught up to a wave of young male runners (about our age) and passed them rather speedily on a hill as they trudged and hiked.  We were pretty proud of ourselves and it gave us a great boost for the last leg of the run :)  

The creeks we ran through weren't too full.  We made it over them by using rocks as stepping stones.

Ohio is a gorgeous state with so much to see.  I love being able to enjoy the outdoors while I workout.

This is a picture of the very beginning of the race.  It's pretty crowded for the first mile- and then people start to pace out.  We had to pass a few large groups of slower runners to find our groove- but by a few miles in were pretty spread out and could just pass small groups on the hills as we got to them.

There were several times I just wanted to stop.  To walk the hills.  To give up. I'm so glad I ran with a friend and had her there pushing and pulling me.  There is something so amazing about doing something this hard.  I feel so accomplished.    And even though my GPS said I ran 13.61 miles instead of 13.1- I am so happy I ran the race.  I LOVED it.