13.1...Done

Well, after 3 months of training, my day finally arrived! It was the Armadillo Dash (only in TX would they name a race after an armadillo!) in College Station. I got up at 5:15 to get ready for the race....eat some veggies, get dressed (of course I got a new outfit for the gig!), drink some water and be nervous! Yep, I didn't think I would be, but I was really nervous. And it was chilly outside (like 50) and I couldn't keep my teeth from chattering while I was waiting for the race. Jonathan and Jeremy ran in the 5K that ran right after the start of the 1/2 marathon, so they were getting ready as well. No veggies, no water and no teeth chattering. Must be nice to be young! I'll do another post about their great race....this one's all about me! :-)

Here we are before the start of the race.

I'm soooo nervous! Just fire the gun and let's get running!

Ok, finally we started! It was funny, once I started running, I wasn't nervous any more. Just ready to go.

The one shocker of the race was that as soon as I took off running, I realized that my ipod wasn't working! THAT was a little frightening! I didn't know if it was my headphones or my ipod, I just knew that after about 1/2 mile of fidgeting with it, it wasn't working. That meant hours of me listening not to the awesome "marathon mix" that my sweet sister had put together for me or any of the other music that I had planned to listen to on the run but to me breathing...in and out, in and out... I was pretty nervous about that!

Here I am talking to my "cheering section" that was waiting at mile 8 1/2. I'm saying "THESE HEADPHONES DON'T WORK!! Anybody have some others??" No one did, so I kept running. Then about 1/2 mile down the road I hear a wierd noise on the road. Turns out it was Jeffrey scootering down the road as fast as he can to bring me some other headphones! That was so sweet! Then, guess what? The problem WASN'T the headphones, it was my ipod! So, I ran the whole way w/out any music. Next time (and I'm sure there WILL be a next time!) I will certainly double and triple check the music situation!

But other than the ipod glitch and the major bummer that Julie had tendonitis in her foot and couldn't run with me, the race was great. I kept waiting to "hit the wall" and for things to get
hard, but they never did. My feet started hurting a little about mile 11, but it was never bad. I wasn't fast by any means (12 minute mile), but I beat my goal. I wanted to finish in 3 hours and I finished in 2:37. I even passed a couple of ladies up at the end when I turned on the speed! :-) And they announced my name as I was running in! (Of course they announced everyone's name, but it was so cool to hear "And here comes Jennie Dagerath, way to go!")

Finished!!

Here I am crossing the finish line. The time on the clock is the time from when the gun sounded. My official time (from the thing on my shoe) was 2:37:57.

And I got a medal! My niece said "Way to go Aunt Jennie, you got the silver medal!" It was a little hard explaining to her that I didn't really get second place, everyone who finished got a silver medal.

My fan club! It was so great to see them at mile 8ish with bright neon signs that said "Go mom" and stuff like that! It was such a perk to just see their smiling faces and hear them cheering for me!!

My training partner! Next time Julie...it's me and you!!!!

So that evening after the race, Michael and I went on a double date w/Mike and Julie to a great, nice restaurant. Julie and I made the reservations months before, probably about the same time that we registered for the race. I mean, we deserved an amazing dinner!! And it was amazing!!

Then after the dinner, since the night was still young, and Pop and Granna were there to babysit, we went home and changed clothes and then all went bowling. Talk about something that we never do! It was lots of fun! I had a horrible night of bowing! Wii bowling is MUCH easier! Note to self...always take along a young child so you can use bumper lanees!

It was a great day...a great weekend really! I'm so glad I did the race. Now at least I have one New Year's goal that I can mark off. DONE!