I can't believe it.

On my 31st birthday, I made the mental commitment to run the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day. At that point, I was only running 5-6 miles at a time, but I felt pretty confident that if I started that day, I could be ready in less than two months. And, surprisingly, I was able to pull it off.

Before:


After:



Sorry, I didn't feel like getting into full makeup before running, as did one girl that was in my start corral. I mean, why?

Unfortunately, I forgot to attach my timing chip to my shoe, so I don't have an 'official' race time, but I did set my stopwatch and got an unofficial time of 2:13:25, so just under my target finish time of 2:15. I ran with the 2:15 pace group, which is a 10:18 mile. The fact that I managed to keep that pace the whole time was the miracle as I've never run this far before. I've also lost close to 15 pounds since the summer, so I'm going to keep it up. I suppose it's time to look for the next race. My brother-in-law is hounding me to run the Salt Lake Marathon in April, but he's crazy, and I also swore around mile 10 that I'd never run a full marathon. :)

P.S. Anyone have any chafing tips because whooo boy. Big girls really aren't supposed to run!