I did it!

 

I finished my first half marathon! All 13.1 miles of it! It was an amazing feeling to cross the finish line and achieve a goal that I've had for myself for a while and that I've been training for over the past 3 months!

 

My sister Natalie, came to Kansas City to run it with me! We started the morning nice and early and headed out of the hotel, and off to our race.

 

We unfortunately were greeted by traffic and were still in the traffic the time the race was slated to start. I got a little nervous and was hoping to have enough time to finish the race, as I know that I am quite a slow runner! But, we arrived at the starting line just as the race was starting, whew that was a close one! At least I didn't have to deal with too much of the pre-race jitters standing there waiting for it to start!
 

My sweet husband, with the help of his talented sister Natalie, surprised us and made us shirts for the us to wear during the run! As well as for our fan club waiting for us at the finish line :) We were team "Natmeg" and on the back it said, "I'm only half nuts! 13.1". It was so nice to have support with me during the run!

 

Overall, the race went well. I started to get a little run down by mile 8, but stuck with the pacers and used my music to get me through it.  Once I got to mile 12, I knew I could do it and kept myself going knowing that I had my husband, my sweet little McKinley, my Mom and my sister Natalie (who finished a bit before me) waiting for me at the finish line!

The name of the race was called, Running with the Cows, as the race was out in rural Kansas (about 10 miles south of Kansas City in a town called Bucyrus, KS). We literally did "run with the cows" and enjoyed the beautiful rural scenery throughout the run! The site of the race was decked out in cow decor all around! And even had a cow mascot to take pictures with after the race.

 

We were a little delusional after running 13 miles, and took these funny pictures! They crack us up every time we look at them! 

After we got back to the hotel, and took the "best shower ever" and got ready, we took some more pictures of us in our race shirts and sporting our newly acquired medals! 

It was a great experience, and I'm so glad that I was able to achieve this goal I'd set for myself. I'm so grateful for all the support I had in my husband, putting up with me and all my crazy long training runs on Saturdays! I'm also grateful that my sister Natalie came to run it with me, it was so nice to have a running buddy to share it with! I'm also grateful that my mom came out to Kansas City to watch us run and be there at the finish line for us! It was so nice to have so much support, I couldn't have done it on my own!