The Gopher to Badger Race

I have been meaning to Post about the half marathon Joe and I ran in for sometime now, but I had some technical difficulties with the pictures... but now with out further adu...

We started off the day with high hopes, I have been trying to get ready for this all summer... and gave myself a good little pep talk in the morning and asked in my prayers for the blessings promised to those who follow the Word of Wisdom, that they would "Run and not be weary, and walk and not faint." Not that I thought I was going to pass out or anything... I was pretty confident that I was going to tackle this thing.
Perhaps more than anything I was worried that I wouldn't get to use the bathroom before the race started. We pulled up to the Start line 10 minutes before race time and this was what the bathroom lines looked like. You can see that I am watching the clock tick, that is because some guy with a mega phone kept telling us about every two minutes what time it was. Meanwhile Joe (hands in his pocket smile on his face) isn't too worried about it, because in moments he would bypass the bathroom lines by heading into the woods like all the other men there and use mother natures toilet... which was a little funny to me because these "Woods" were just a strip of trees in a residential area.
SO with 3 minutes to spare, I get into the Port-O-Potty... gasp when I realize there is no hand sanitizer... and then run to the start line just in time for the kick off.

If you are trying to see us you wont. In this photo... we are in the very very back of the pack.

And we were off... and no that is not the peace sign. But rather that was after two miles of running. My mom was our cheering squad and followed us in the big white conversion van all around. We would be so happy to see her every couple of miles.
Now, when we got there we were told that there were "Rolling Hills" at the beginning of the course... what they really meant was that for the first seven miles we would either be running uphill or downhill, not only that but it was a hot and sunny day. At about 7 miles we both decided we needed to walk for a bit.

I was a little disappointed because I thought that I would be able to run the whole thing with out walking. However it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be... on a side note I gained a new appreciation for the nutzo people who run full marathons... I think I'll stick to the halves.

After a short break we were back in action, but Joe and I didn't stay together long... I had to keep running and Joe needed another walking break. Which, bless his soul, he didn't train the same way I did all summer, he wanted to run with me so that I didn't have to do it alone... and because frankly he is The Man.
Here you can see me running backwards trying to give him the pep talk.
There were a few things I realized as I ran... mostly they were things that I was thankful for... The shade, water, trees, wind, sunblock, Gatorade, Asics Gel running shoes, gum, my mom and her van and of course Joe.

I had to walk again at about mile 12... and at that point felt near death. I could see the finish line in sight but just could not get my legs to pick up and run again. Right at the finish line though I spotted Joe's mom and mustered up enough strength to jog about 20 feet across the finish line.


If I look a little dazed in this picture... that is because I was. If you asked me my name at this point I don't know if I could have told you. But I turned right back around and started jogging back through the course to find Joe and cheer him to the end.
And it wasn't too long before I found him and this cute little old man heading into the finish line. Nice job Ostebo!!!


I quickly made my way to the treat table to load up on all the free food and goodies... that was my favorite part of the whole race. The orange slices made it all worth it. We said good bye to our moms and laid in the grass to relax... when we finally got up to leave we realized that Joe's car keys were with my mom... now an hour away from home and not answering her cell phone. So we spent the next hour in our own sweat and stink sitting on the side of the road waiting for a ride... good times... good times.