Half Marathon Number 3 + My Mom’s First Half Marathon!
Hello there and happy Thursday! Thanks to quite a few, miserable sick days, my week is so upside down. Last week, Landon had three days off work and this week, he’s taken two days off because of being sick or helping me recover. Needless to say, my days feel all jumbled.
Before the weekend craziness begins, I wanted to pop in here and share a recap of my third half marathon (can’t believe it is my third half already!) and my MOM’S first half marathon!
A couple months ago, I signed up for this Thanksgiving weekend half marathon, because I was still riding on the post-marathon high and I was hoping to break my PR in the half, by the end of the year. When I was looking at the half, I encouraged my mom to sign up too, because she was starting to train and I was eager to see her conquer the 13.1 miles! We both signed up together and I was super excited! As the weeks passed and my training went okay, but not stellar (thanks to an injury and my wisdom tooth) I decided that instead of running my own race, I really wanted to pace my mom instead.
Race morning, I felt confident and was super excited to share such a special memory with my mom. Now, I have to brag on my mom for a moment. My mom has been a runner for as long as I can remember, but she’s always run about 1-2 miles at a time. With a little encouragement and a reason why (she ran for my brother in the military) she trained and built up to running 12 miles at a time! Watching her crush her training cycle (that I ended up creating for her!) was such a joy! (The above picture, featuring our awesome support crew! Landon, thank you for capturing these pictures!)
So, race morning we both toed the line feeling confident and little nervous, but excited to see what was to come. My main objective was to have fun, pace my mom, and enjoy the experience with her. I wanted to run a pace that I knew would challenge her enough, but not be too hard to hang onto.
My mom and I ran side by side for the first six miles and I was super proud to see she was averaging just under 10 minute miles for the first six. Honestly, the first four miles, my legs felt a little stiff, but by mile 6, I felt ready to fly. I think my mom and I must have switched legs, because by miles 7 she was feeling some heaviness in her legs. We pushed through and saw my sisters, dad, Landon and Benaiah at mile 9. I stopped to give Landon a kiss and we ran on. I would speed up a little to keep my legs happy with me, a then turn around to make sure mom wasn’t too far behind me. I was so inspired by her courage and bravery and she did amazing.
She had some major foot discomfort around mile 11, but after stretching it felt better and we pressed on. One of my favorite parts of the race, was seeing the finish line and pointing it out to her. We sprinted, hand in hand, toward the finish and ended with a time of 2:17:56. I was so excited to see her time and know that she CRUSHED her time goal by TWENTY MINUTES.
We saw Landon, Niah, my dad and sisters, gave lots of hugs and warmed up with the chicken soup post-race. It was such a joy filled day and literally, and it is definitely one of my favorite races! 
Mom, thank you for being my inspiration, so many years ago, when I first started to run, and continuing to inspire me. I am so glad I was able to encourage you and run such a memorable race with you!