Layton Half Marathon

Okay, here's the story of the half marathon...

I signed up sometime this summer. I honestly don't know why. I despise running. I always have. For me, it seemed impossible, so I thought I'd give it a try! I started training in July. Then came news of my mom's stepdaughter's wedding that was set for Marathon day, October 9th. So, the training stopped. I was okay with that. Then, about 4 weeks ago, the wedding date changed again (due to a military conflict). The first thing Matt said was, "well, I guess you can run now..." Hmmm. Wasn't planning on it. But I started running anyways. It wasn't fun. I did not enjoy it. As the race day was approaching, I was feeling a little more confident. I did a final long run (10 miles) the weekend before. I planned on one short run during the week then race day. Well, Wednesday I started running and basically couldn't. In fact, I could barely walk. I had done something to my right foot, and it hurt like crazy. I went to see a Podiatrist on Thursday and he said I had hyperextended the joints in my foot. He gave me a cortisone shot in the side of my foot and sent me on my way. Well, the pain the next day, Friday (the day before the race) was WAY worse. I was so bummed that I wouldn't be able to run. I called the Dr. again, and begged for another cortisone shot; this time in the joints on the top of my foot. This second injection was magical! I had little to no pain from then on. I was able to run on it with no problems.

The half marathon was a great experience. I made it under the time I'd set as a goal, and most importantly, I finished! I did it with a good friend of mine, and being able to run it with someone fun definitely makes the time fly by! One of the greatest moments was seeing London running down the street to meet me near the finish line. There she was in shorts, knee high boots, a Hello Kitty tshirt and pink trench coat running her little heart out towards me. From there, we rounded a corner and headed to the finish line. What a fun moment! I loved having finished something I thought I could never had done. It was definitely do-able! I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be picked up by a running sponsor anytime soon or anything, but I finished and I loved it!