the THUNELL tale: Hobbler Half

A goal I have had for a long time is to complete a half marathon. Little did I know that training for such a race would get me absolutely addicted to running! For 4 months a good friend and I trained together, running multiple times per week. At first, I was sure we would never make it. My lungs could hardly stand 3 miles without catching fire, not to mention the IT band pain in my knee and side aches. But we persevered. I figured out the joys of rolling out my IT band with a tennis ball, changed my diet, increased by water intake, and low and behold my body adapted! Before too long, we were running 10 miles with no problems.

Race day was so much fun! We had to catch a bus to the starting line at 4:45am, which made for a very early wake up call. Luckily, I had some amazing friends by my side who made the whole thing a giant, running party. We all ran together for the first 5 miles, but then slowly separated to keep our own pace. I realized about mile 9 that I could finish the race in under 2 hours if I kept my pace (a surprise even to me as we had been training at a much slower pace). It was exciting to push my body to the limits and never stop. I can't tell you the joy I experienced passing the 2 hour pacer just minuets before crossing the finish line! My "official" was 1:57:51.

Justin was there cheering me on as I rounded the final corner to the home stretch. It was such a relief to see his face and know that I survived. I got my medal and shoved my face with bananas gatorade before hobbling over to my husband (my muscles were no longer cooperating by this point). It was a lot of fun to cheer for the other girls as they crossed the finish line--all of them hobbling by the end. This half marathon certainly has an appropriate name. Then the boys ate our free french toast breakfast (because honestly, who can eat that after running 13.1 miles?) and headed home for a long nap. The boys may or may not have had to carry us to the car...