TCHM Conquered..

...aka I kicked the Tacoma City Half Marathon's ASS!!!

I have to admit, when my alarm woke me up at 5am this morning, I was a little nervous.  I was sort of afraid that my body wouldn't be able to take the rigor that completing 13.1 miles requires just 3 short weeks after my surgery.  But once I showed up at the Fleet Feet tent and started seeing all my running friends, nervousness slowly but surely started transitioning to excitement.

Me with my super awesome running buddy Katie, who kicked some major butt on the marathon and raised over $1500 for Running for Tyler! GO KATIE!!!!

Cora (rocking some awesome arm sleeves), Theresa and I before the race.  Theresa was amazing...she ran the entire half marathon with me to make sure I was okay and she motivated me up a couple pretty steep hills toward the end of the race when my stitches were hurting and my motivation was draining!

All of us HFMT (Half/Full Marathon Training) runners at the start line before the race with Fleet Feet Pete (the shoe). I'm the one in the orange shirt...haha, just kidding, I'm the one standing third over from the left, just to the right of Kiel, who is kneeling near Pete.

With the amazing Kendra, aka Mamasita, before her marathon start.

While the main goal of the race was simply to finish, I'm pretty competitive and tend to push myself pretty hard (even when I probably shouldn't).  So at the start line, Theresa and I lined ourselves up behind the 2:10:00 pacer, which would put us at right around 10:00 mile pace.  The gun went off, we slowly started to move toward the start line, and as soon as we crossed the start line, I started my Garmin, pushed play on my iPod, and we were off (keeping the 2:10 sign in our sights).

Theresa and I synchronizing our Garmins as we crossed the start line...okay, so we didn't actually synchronize watches, but how cool would that have been?!

The race wound through downtown Tacoma, around Wright Park, past Tacoma General Hospital (where I had been only 2 weeks prior, battling my second bout of pancreatitis), down along Ruston Way, and then back into downtown Tacoma for the finish.  There were a couple hills at miles 11 and 12 that got the best of me and I had to walk for a little bit because at that point my stitches/side were starting to bother me a little, but other than that I ran the entire race.  And as soon as I saw that mile 12 marker, something sparked within me, and the mantra "I can do anything for 1 mile" spurred me into a faster pace, and as I rounded the corner with 0.2 miles to go and the finish line in sight, I found that final ounce of energy and was able to sprint to the end.  I crossed the finish line in 2:05:35 (that's an average of a 9:35 mile pace, and incidentally, we finished IN FRONT of the the 2:10 pacers!), which is a PR (personal record) for me, and apparently I helped Theresa get a PR too (although she motivated and pushed me through the entire race, so I'm not sure who did more for who!)!  Not too shabby for 3 weeks after gallbladder removal surgery.

Me with my finisher's medal...technically it's only half a medal, apparently I can get the other half if I run the Tacoma Narrows Half Marathon in August.  I think just owning half of the full medal will bother me, so it looks like I'll be signing up for yet another half this year (counting today's, I'm already signed up for 5 half marathons, 1 full marathon, and the H2C Relay)!

All of my race day goodies...I can't wait to wear my finisher's shirt with pride.  I DID IT!!!