2:37:37

Ran my 1st 1/2 marathon Sunday morning...well ran/walked, but still 13.1 miles in 2hours, 37 minutes, and 37 seconds! I was #576 out of 742.

My friend Dove and I decided 2 months ago, "if the biggest losers can run a marathon, why can't we?" So we started training.

Here are my race recaps:
5:30am My running buddy Dove picks me up and we head to Mayfaire to catch the trolley.
6:20am We get on Wrightsville Beach and stand in line to pee. They are out of toilet paper, but some girls behind us went to the boys and passed it up, what nice people. At this point my running buddy and I are starting to doubt ourselves....we don't look like these runners, I've lost 6lbs during training, but they look serious, do they know we're phonies?
We also realize the starting line is a 10min. walk....why couldn't they drop us off sooner?
6:43 I see my pastor's wife, she's running too!
6:45 The guns goes off and I start running!
Mile 1 1/2 I see two boys wanting high fives from the runners, it's my pastor's boys! I give them fives as I keep jogging!
Mile 3-31/2 ish....TIRED decide to walk a bit. Michelle (pastor's wife) passes me. A little jealous that she had breath to cheer me on as she passed me, but at the same time how encouraging!!! That's why I love her!!!!!
Get into Landfall gated community. Run/Walk my way through it. Some of my favorite signs I saw along the path:
"Running is HORSE $#@&" "Congrats Nikki on your first/last marathon" "$5 cab rides to mayfaire" and "3.7 miles = beer" Definitely helped me keep my mind off things.
There was also a lady opening her house up for bathrooms. Now Landfall is a gated community and unless I run the marathon next year I will probably never get a pass in. Part of me wanted to stop and pee in her house...the other part of me knew if I stopped I'd be her permanent house guest asleep on the couch or in a guest room until she had security remove me, so I kept running.
Mile 6-7 Just walked, but 1/2 way done!!!
Mile 8-10 ran with a joyful guy! He had enough breath to thank EVERYONE that was cheering for us. He was a marathoner pacing himself. I told him I'd pray for him and his breath support when I finished! (And I did)
Mile 11.5ish I had some apple cinnamon gel, not too bad, not too amazing either.
Miles 12-13.1 Keep running, walking, running, walking, and hearing "you're almost done!" Really? That last 1.1 miles felt longer than the rest.
But I finished!!!!! And that was my goal :) EXTREMELY SORE (still sore in fact- I have a purple toe AND a bruised left foot, FUN!)
Dove now has no desire to ever run one again. She ran it all and had a time of 2:28, she rocks!

I am now slightly wanting to turn it into a lifestyle. I have no desire to run a full marathon, but I'd like to finish one w/o walking. So now I'm looking for the next one.

PS: since I already talked about peeing and the toilet, lets just say I realize now why "real runners" run in tights and not underwear...I'm in pain!