We Did It!

Yes, we did.  We accomplished the Forest Park Half Marathon!  It was Jeremy's 2nd half marathon and my 1st.  I am happy I did it... it hurt, but I finished ;)

(training stairs at Mt. Tabor)

It wasn't your typical half as you would normally would think - winding through city streets and neighborhoods.  It was a trail run - through the west hills of Portland.

(those are the West Hills in the far distance... a view from our training run on Mt. Tabor)

It was stunning, rugged and challenging.  Stunning because it was in a forest!  The leaves showed all the beautiful signs of fall.  The race was small so it allowed for a lot of quiet time in nature (which I love).  It was challenging, as the first 3 miles were up hill.  It had another 2+ mile hill and then a hill called "fireman's hill" at mile 6... a serious soul crusher.  I've never experienced a hill so steep.  You feel like you might start falling backwards.  Needless to say: I walked that hill.  Jeremy was a stud and ran the whole way up!  That was where we departed on the course together.

There was a point... after fireman's hill where I thought I might not make it to the finish ;)  One of my running friend's has talked with me a lot about how she focuses on the comparison of running a race to the Christian walk, like Paul talks about.  I tried focusing on this too.  I prayed hard the 2nd half of the race... meditating on the thought that the Lord is my strength - nothing is impossible with Him.  As corny as it sounds, when I neared the mile 12 mark... I could feel myself having to hold back the sobs... I was going to make it!!! Silly as it sounds being an athlete my whole life, I never thought I would have it in me to run a half marathon.  I don't consider myself a true runner.  I had tears welling up in my eyes.  I quickly decided I needed to cut out the crying or I was going to trip on a tree root and wind up on my face like a few other runners I had seen ;)

There's nothing like seeing the finish line after a run like that.  We both finished strong, but were glad when it was done.  Like I mentioned in a previous post, I got super sick afterwards.  Seriously miserable.  I wasn't hydrated enough and didn't anticipate the race would only have 2 water stations.  I learned my lesson: Next time, it's a water belt and electrolytes for this girl ;)

I must say: I ADORED the training for it.  This sounds strange.  But it allowed Jeremy and I to get outside in nature, spend time together and get in good shape!  It was awesome to feel prepared for our race.  We both say it often: it's one of our absolutely favorite things to do together... to run together.  I loved training with you babe!

 We got the chance to do our 10 mile training run at our lake cabin in Washington... it was brutal because it was hot... beautiful because it was at the lake.

 Tired but proud

 Loved, loved my summer training runs through Mt. Tabor.  Nothing like alone time, prayer time and running time all wrapped in one.

 Simply Stunning.

I love this picture with my love.  But this run was hard.  I was sick all day but dragged myself out to do our final training run before our race.  Tryon Creek was just 1 more stunning run Oregon had to offer.

In the end, I finished not too long after my rockstar husband and we both finished under 2 hours.

Thank you Nana, OoOo, Claire, Mimi, Baba, Harper and Bentley for being our finish line cheering squad... It was a sight for sore eyes to see all of you and celebrate accomplishing our goal with all of you.  It meant so much and we love you dearly!