My First 1/2

I DID IT! 13.2 Miles! In under 3 hours (2.45 to be exact)!
It was very difficult, painful, and challenging but i did it. And now, i have to do it again in two weeks in Vermont for the Covered Bridge 1/2 Marathon on June 1st.

The Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati on May 4th is one of the seemingly impossible but simultaneously most fun and most difficult 1/2M and Marathons. The hills make it one of the most difficult and the city and people make it one of the most fun runs (according to Runner's Magazine).

i ran once while on vacation - 4.5 miles in Santa Fe while sick (i think running really, really helped me get over/through the cold i acquired while visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park when the temperature/weather bounced back and forth b/n sunny and sixty to rain and forty to sleet to snowy and thirty-degrees at least three different times. It was still beautiful, though. (More on that trip in my next post - above.) )

Two of my running 'coaches' and Al were their at the very end cheering my triumph. The four of us walked along the loud and boisterous finish 'line' which was more of a corridor of people cheering everyone on to a proud finish for both the 1/2M and Marathon. The run was much, much more emotional than i ever imagined. i nearly broke down in the corridor of people shouting for me despite not knowing any (or few of them). Then it occurred to me...

Why can't people with cancer...ALS...etc... receive this same awe-inspiring, heart-filling, soul-enriching feeling? What if we could create a "Marathon Finish" for people battling cancer-ALS-type diseases? How empowering would that be?