Half Marathon!

Found this picture today on the computer. I had totally forgotten about it. It was of the emergency room, the day of my appendectomy. Joe is telling me the bad news diagnosis.

Anyway, we finished our half marathon on Monday. It was so hot and humid, even at 5:00 in the morning. I was sweating before we even started the race. Our waitress later on that day said that three of her co-workers had to go home early that day due to heat-sickness, and then I read an article that 8 people in Southern California died that weekend due to complications of the heat. With that horrible statistic in mind, here are my finishing times:

3:09:29
7877 out of 9744 overall who finished
4367 out of 5779 women who finished
421 out of 531 in my age/sex division (Woman 18-24)

Pretty terrible, but I did accomplish my goal- I avoided the slow bus and got my medal. I raced (walked is probably the more correct term) with my mom for the first 9 miles and then found my sisters, and ran the rest with my younger sister Megan.

It was the cutest race ever. There were fireworks to start us off with Mickey and Minnie in their cute littler running suits at the starting line, and we immediately ran through Disneyland and California Adventures, where rides were going and characters were cheering us on. Capt'n Jack Sparrow sat on Tom Sawyer's Island as we ran by; Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Sully, and Eeyore were all there. One of the green, plastic soldiers from "Toy Story" yelled "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" in a very military-esque tone and I laughed so hard as I ran by.

We ran all around Anaheim and through the Angel's Stadium, then ran across the finish line in Downtown Disney. I felt wonderful (except for the hideous pain in my left knee, which is only now leaving). Training for this race has been so annoying, with the waking up early every day, and the nausea, and the pain. But it was enjoyable to be able to train for it with my family. And it was very rewarding to run it in Disneyland. It adds something very special to an already fun trip to California. Training for something like this and finishing it gives me a wonderful feeling of doing something worthwhile and accomplishing something. I'm a terrible runner but this race was so fun that, against my better judgment, I'm looking for more local races to run.





We found out, to our disappointment, that they weren't made of chocolate.