Half-Marathon

March started off with a bang!  I ran a half-marathon the week after we got back from Hawaii.  I'd actually trained really hard for this race and was hoping to PR.  I kept track of my running routes and my pace as I trained and felt the thrill of accomplishment as I watched my average pace gradually drop as I increased my speed.  My friend who teaches our weekly HIIT class decided she wanted to run her first half-marathon and invited a bunch of us to join so I even had friends to do the long runs with on Saturday mornings.  I was pretty excited for this race.  Unfortunately I'd spent the two days prior to the race, cleaning up after the many puking episodes from Parker and Landon who came down with Ethan's stomach bug.  But I was optimistic I wouldn't catch it because I was feeling fine.  But I was wrong. 

My feet were feeling heavy from the start and around mile 8 I was feeling like my legs were bricks and I was dizzy and basically wanted to die.  That's when I realized I had Ethan's stomach bug that he was battling the week before as we drove home from CA.  I didn't throw up but I felt terrible and just wanted to stop.  I kept going and tried to keep a steady pace as the freezing rain poured down.  I was miserable.  At mile 12, I pulled out my phone and called Ethan since he was my ride home.  I didn't want to sit around at the finish line to celebrate, I just wanted to get home.  I was soaking wet and freezing!  But I finished with a decent time of 1:57.  I got home, took a hot bath, and stayed in bed for the next two days as our whole family fought The Stomach Plague of 2023.  

I ate nothing for two days except for half of a post-race banana.  Such a bummer.  I have cleaned up some pretty terrible things in my years of being a mom but this weekend topped them all.  In ways I will never forget.  My children owe me big time for the things I did for them while they were sick.

Meanwhile Marcus was going to the hospital for more tests to try to get better from his concussion.  He had the mi
ssion doctor call us and thankfully Randy was feeling well enough to talk on the phone while I listened in from my bed.  It was terrible and gave me so much empathy for Marcus who threw up almost every day for five weeks.  Poor kid.

One of the views from an early morning run.  Ironically, the worst weather we had to run in was during the race.  We had mostly great weather for all our long runs.