Half Marathon at Myrtle Beach

Yes, this is the view from our condo balcony...pretty much the most amazing view I've ever experienced from anywhere I've ever stayed. It was breathtaking!

Looking out my bedroom window at our condo in Myrtle Beach. Seriously...seriously!

So I did it. I can finally say I ran a half marathon. Oh, that's so funny, I almost typed that I "won" a half marathon. I think I accidently typed that because of how many times Fabio asked me if I'd won. Sheesh.

For those of you who don't know...here's the background. My friend Melissa loves running marathons, but she won't run on Sunday, which is when most marathons are. So, she finds marathons far, far away that are on Saturday, and she'll go run them. When she was visiting me last October, she mentioned she was going to run one in Myrtle Beach, SC. I looked at the calendar, saw that I had a four-day weekend and thought this would be a good excuse for me to finally run a half-marathon. ("Why not a full marathon?" you ask...NEVER!) I made the plunge, and signed up for the race right on the spot. Dad helped me find an affordable ticket and even forked out Marriott points so we could stay in a posh Marriott vacation club while we were there. (It is so wonderful having a travel agent for a dad!!!) :)

It was a wonderful trip. The accomodations were by far the best I've ever stayed in, Melissa and I always have a good time together, the weather was perfect and I burned around 1500 calories! Pretty sweet deal. The race itself was a breeze for the first 7 miles. Then my right knee started revolting. (I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that I pretty much trained only on a treadmill due to wet Seattle winters and massive hills just about everywhere.) My knee wanted to stop bending, which nearly devastated me at only half-way through the course. I literally forced myself through some tears to keep running and by mile 8 my right leg was numb. Up until mile 10, that went over just fine, but then my leg started to feel like lead, and in order to keep running, I had to go really slow, but I was determined to run the entire thing. At mile 12, I slowed to a momentary walk at the water station and when I went to start running again, my body literally stopped responding to my brain. No matter what I tried, I could not run. It was incredibly discouraging. My knee was sooooooooo traumatized, I think my body was telling my brain, "I'm not allowing you to run anymore because if you do, your knee will explode." With about 100 yards left, I mustered up every ounce of strength left and ran out of humiliation of having to walk across the finish line. My body was numb for about 2 hours and then the pain started to kick in. It really wasn't too bad, except for my knee, which wouldn't move without my hands reaching down and doing the moving for it. The rest of the day I was "Peg Leg" as Melissa fondly called me. That night I iced it and took 3 ibuprofin. By morning it was much better and I'm happy to say that I can only feel a little pain when I go up and down stairs.

So there was the play by play, whether you wanted it or not. Overall, it was a great experience. I will keep running, but I think I will stick to 10K races!

As a side note, the girls sing tomorrow night on American Idol! Watch and vote for Brooke!!!!!