Half Marathon Finisher

Right before we started

I am now a half marathon finisher. My only real goal was to finish. My dad and I had set a time goal of 2:06. I was well on my way to accomplishing my time goal. My split at the half way point had to be 1:06 I was at 1:03. At about mile 10 my body was drained. But I set out to finish I was gonna finish!! I had ran 10 miles the furthest I had ever run without stopping. I decided to walk, I walked for a minute and decided to run. The camaraderie between runners is amazing. You have never met these people, will probably never see these people ever again, but they want you to succeed, you want them to succeed. When I started walking, this man who had been running at the same pace as me for the whole race said "Come on sweetie you can do it." So I kept plugging along. At 12.5 miles I couldn't pick my legs up to put one in front of the other, I had my phone with me, with myrunkeeper app on it. I called my dad, I was crying, and the 1st words out of my dad's mouth were "Why are you running with your phone?" All I could say was "Half mile left dad, I hurt I have to stop." My dad started laughing. He said "Katie it's a half mile, you've already gone 12.6, what's a half mile more? I'm hanging up and you call me when you finish." This lady who I met when the race 1st started had already finished and was there to cheer us on. She said "I don't remember your name but the finish is right there, YOU CAN DO IT!" Sure enough this burst of energy hit and I sprinted to the finish. Reeling in 2 people right at the finish. I looked up at the time and said "Holy cow 2:12." What a huge rush of emotions. I didn't finish the race in 2:06, but I had finished.

Right after finishing

Some of you may think I'm crazy, at mile 8 I got this huge surge of energy. We had gotten a call at 6:30 that morning from the nursing home saying that my Grandpa probably wasn't going to make it through the day. I swear at mile 8 my Grandpa's soul went to Heaven and he came with my baby brother and my other Grandpa and the boys carried me. I don't even remember miles 8 to 10.

Thank you to everyone who supported me!! Who cheered me on. I couldn't have done it without you!

My body hurt so bad it hurt to stand