As busy as I have been with nursing school, I had not planned on running in the Rock and Roll Half Marathon this year. I have had almost no time to exercise, much less train for a marathon, so even though the idea of missing it made me very sad, I tried to put it out of my mind and try to study.
I have had several friends, and even a few nursing instructors who were training for it. I wished them luck and told myself I would make it next year.
One of my friends, Matt, had signed up several months ago, but tore his meniscus at Army National Guard training. He still picked up his race packet to get the t-shirt even though he knew he couldn't do the marathon.
On Saturday afternoon I asked if I could take his number and do it for him. So Saturday evening around 8:00 I picked up his race number and pinned it to my marathon shirt.
Chris told me I was crazy. I figured he was right, but 7:00 Sunday morning found me at the start line of the race with all my runner gear on and ready to go.
I knew I couldn't run it, I would have to walk. But the guy that finishes in one hour and the guy that finishes in 4 hours are both half marathon finishers and both get the same medal.
This picture is when we are going over the bridge around mile 3. There are lots of people going up. The few that are coming toward us going down the bridge are on mile 10 and probably finished in the 1 hour 15 minute range. (They started before us).
The boardwalk seems like it's forever long, and even though I could see the finish line, it just didn't seem to get closer. 
Mile 13 is a wonderful sight. But that last 0.1 mile seems to be the longest of the whole thing.
Even though I was just walking, I was still pretty tired by that point.
About this point I started to run, so I could at least cross the finish line running.Even though this was my 4th half marathon, I still started crying when I crossed the finish line. And like the 3 other times, I made myself stop because I couldn't breathe when I was crying.
I always consider walking to the water and getting my feet wet, but everytime so far I have opted to just head back to the shuttle.
If my mouth looks a little blue here, it's from the popsicle they handed me after I crossed the finish line.
I have worn the same white shirt and the same Hill Cumorah visor for all 4 of my half marathons.
I think my final time was about 3:36, which I actually feel pretty awesome about considering my complete lack of training.
The only downside of doing this is that my muscles are getting even with me today. I am in PAIN. But I still think it was worth it. The pain will wear off, but I will remember completing my 4th half marathon -with NO training- forever.
So who is going to join me next year? I promise we'll train better.
