Category Archives: half marathon

the colonial williamsburg half marathon

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Because I apparently like blogging things long after they happen, here’s a recap of the Colonial Williamsburg Half Marathon I did with Lelia back in February! It was such a great race, and I just can’t let it go without being documented.

Lelia and I had talked about running a half marathon together for years, but it just never seemed like the right time. After we spontaneously ran almost 8 miles on New Year’s Eve together, Lelia pensively said, “Hmmm, I wonder…”, and from there we decided we would finally do it. We made a training plan and cheered each other on each week as we checked off the miles. It was so fun to know my sister was a couple hundred miles away completing the same runs.

We also made matching shirts! We found various ideas online and combined a few of them to come up with this! “Sole Sisters!” forever! So many people yelled out to us and commented on our shirts throughout the race, which was really fun.We drove down to Michael’s parents’ house on Thursday night, since that would put us about 30 minutes away from the race location. We had a restful day on Friday, and then got up early on Saturday morning before the 8:30 am race start. I had better sleep than I expected to, since pre-race jitters always seem to get in the way, and Eve did alright and only woke up twice during the night.

We took the ferry over to Williamsburg, and arrived about an hour before start time, so I tried to nurse Eve while waiting for Lelia. Eve didn’t want anything to do with nursing, so I just had to hope she’d be happy while I was gone. Thankfully, she did great the entire time.

We got to the start line and waited to use the bathroom one last time. There were not a lot of porta-potties, and we were worried that we wouldn’t get through the long line before the race started. Another runner standing behind us told us about a random porta-potty far across the field and in a parking lot, so I had a nice warm-up jog over that way.

Michael took this picture as quickly as possible before we got into the start line. Lelia’s cousin Brandon raced, too (only way ahead of us)!

The race wound through Colonial Williamsburg for the first couple of miles, and I was wishing I could have shown my girls all the historical buildings. We ended up on a paved trail that cut through the forest, over a wooden bridge, and ended just next to Busch Gardens, where we turned around at mile 7.4. There were some small hills, but really nothing too challenging.

Lelia and I had dreamed of finishing in under two hours, although I was trying not to get my hopes too high and keep my goal realistic. When we saw the fast paces we were making in the first few miles, we said, “What are we doing?”, but we felt fine, so we just kept going and banked that time.

I knew the miles would fly on by with Lelia by my side, and I was right. We talked for most of it, and I might have also been singing Daniel Tiger’s “Close your eyes, and think of something happy” to keep us going. We kept calculating our pace and figuring that we would be able to make it in under 2 hours, although it was going to be close.

We had been worried about the weather leading up to the race. There was rain in the forecast, and it was supposed to be cold. On race morning, the radar gave me hope that the rain wouldn’t start until after we finished. It was also 49 degrees, which sounded absolutely amazing for February! I decided to wear my shorts and leave my rain jacket at home, thinking it’d be too hot. I’m not exactly sure when it started raining, but it quickly went from a drizzle to pouring down, and we were soaking wet. The temperature dropped 10 degrees, and by the end, I was wishing I had my jacket and gloves.

Lelia and I stuck together until the very end, around mile 12.6. Her hip was bothering her, and at that point, stopping or slowing down would hurt more for me than to just keep pushing forward. I pulled just a little ahead, and finally saw my family, standing out there in the rain, cheering for me as I crossed the line! My fingers were numb, and I couldn’t stop shivering, but I was so proud.Sub-2 sisters!!! We earned this! This was my first postpartum race! I’m amazed how much strength and endurance I gained in the seven months since I had Eve.The race website made these funny little digital certificates. I like that it has all my rankings on there though! Fifth for my age/gender group! Not bad! I just had to put the medal on Eve. It’s tradition for a postpartum comeback!Apparently, medals taste good.I’m so grateful for the ability to do this, and also the opportunity to finally run a half with Lelia! This was the first winter half marathon I had ever done, and it was great for personal growth. On to more races!

five favorites (01/14)

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I meant to write this on Friday, but as life goes, I’m finally sharing on a Monday! It’s one of those rare days where we’ve finished school, dinner is already prepared, and the older girls are playing quietly while the little girls nap, so I feel like I can take a few minutes to hop on here and blog!

ONE. A new year means new classes for the girls at church! They are always so excited to move up to the next age group. I didn’t necessarily plan to take “first day” pictures of them, but they remembered that we did this last year and were willing to do it again. Kaya is looking like such a young lady these days.I’m a little sad that Kaelyn isn’t our little Sunbeam anymore (there’s just something extra sweet about that first year in Primary), but she has the same teachers for CTR 4 and loves going to class just as much as ever.Evie still just hangs out with us, and I am more than okay with that. Look at these two cuties!Nella most likely wouldn’t have posed with the chalkboard, but she did put this Santa hat on and smile for me. She moved up to “senior nursery” and I just can’t believe she’s so big.

TWO. Perler beads have taken over our house. I’m pretty sure that whoever lives in this house will forever be finding these little plastic beads. See that tub? There’s 22,000 of them in there!Really, though, Kaya and Kaelyn absolutely love these (admittedly, I do too… so many childhood memories)! They have spent hours and hours this past week creating anything they can imagine.Hello Kitty!(Yes, Kaya was wearing lipstick this day!)Skye from Paw Patrol!I’m starting to get better at ironing these a little more evenly (parchment paper seems to work best)!

THREE. Lelia and I went running on Christmas Eve, and we ended up going nearly 8 miles instead of the 6 we had originally planned. We had such a good time that we somewhat spontaneously decided to start training for a half marathon together. This is something we’ve talked about doing for awhile, and I’m beyond excited that it’s actually happening! My paces have been seemed more consistent, and dare I say, a little faster, than the last time I did this, so I’m really excited to see what I can do on race day!I had a 9-miler and a 10-miler this past week! Woohoo!FOUR. We started back to school last Monday. It was refreshing to have just over a month off for the holidays (and our Spain trip), but it feels good to be back at it and checking things off. I’m proud of my little first grader and how much she’s accomplished already this school year. It sounds crazy, but summer doesn’t seem that far away!It’s also so nice when your friends are homeschooling too! Our girls love being together, and I’m grateful that homeschool has allowed them to still have playdates in the middle of the day. (Photo credit to Bianca!)FIVE. I might be a little obsessed with the movie Moana right now (seriously, how cute is Pua the pig?), but I’m super obsessed with this smiley baby. It doesn’t get any sweeter than this!Happy Monday!

race 13.1 roanoke recap (my first half marathon!)

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On race morning, I woke up to the engulfing blackness of night that still exists at 4 A.M. I was excited, jittery, and just the slightest bit nervous for the day ahead. I picked up Nella so she could nurse, and Michael gently woke the older girls, managing to get them to use the bathroom and get buckled into their car seats while they were essentially still asleep.

We left home around 5 A.M. to make the hour or so drive up to Roanoke. We needed to be at least a little early so I could pick up my race packet! I ate half of a Kind bar on the way, but I was too anxious to have anything else but some water.

We were some of the first people to arrive, so there was no line to pick up my bib. I had plenty of time to use the bathroom, take a pre-race photo, and try to nurse Nella again before I had to leave her for the next couple of hours.
Around 6:45, we heard the national anthem, and then all half-marathoners were called to line up. The only other race I’ve run is the Monument Avenue 10k, which has an excessively large number of participants in comparison to this half marathon. Needless to say, I was surprised (and a little relieved) to see so few people lining up.

I tightened my shoelaces, the countdown began, and we were off! I got to wave to Michael and the girls on the way out!
I started out right behind the 2:00 Race Pacer, and I got a little ambitious and thought that maybe I would be able to stick by him through most of it. Thankfully, by mile 3, I wised up and decided that I needed to just do what felt good for me based on my training.

The course was a very flat trail, winding through some trees near a river. Around mile 4, I heard the guy behind me repeatedly asking race volunteers, “Is this the hill up here?” I knew there were going to be hills, but I really wasn’t worried about them, since I’m used to running in this area. I wasn’t sure what this other runner’s preoccupation with “the hill” was, but as soon as I saw it around mile 4.5, I knew.

It was the steepest hill I’ve ever run in my life! So many people immediately started walking, but I pushed on. Another runner girl cheered for me. Once I was past it, I was worried for the turnaround, because next time, I’d be trying to go down it.

The course was no longer flat after that point- we had one more large hill and then some slight inclines and declines all the way to the turnaround point at 6.8 miles. I was starting to feel the effects of only eating half of a granola bar before the race, so after circling through a tiny parking lot at the end of the route and getting back on the trail, I pulled out my fruit snacks and ate one at a time over the next couple of miles. I was drinking Gatorade out of my pack, as well as taking some at all but one of the aid stations. I was also surprised to see that so few runners had brought their own fuel belts, and although it was a perfect day for racing (overcast and not at all hot), I was glad to have mine.

In my training runs, running miles 1 through 6 would feel almost effortless. On race day, however, I felt like I was pushing my body the entire time, and I was just tired. Once I was at mile 7, I started playing number games with myself:

“I just have to run 3 more miles until I reach 10, and I can run 3 miles easily. Then I just have to make it 1.5 more miles to get to 11.5, and then it’s basically just one more mile until that finish-line adrenaline kicks in. No big deal; I’ve got this!” I know it sounds crazy, but when you’re pushing through the miles, somehow, that thought process is convincing.

At mile 11, just like in training, the muscles in my legs and feet started to burn. My respiration and heart rate felt just fine, but my legs were absolutely ready to be done. These last few miles definitely weren’t flying by, but I was managing okay.

At mile 12.5, I started to see the buildings where we had started out, and I heard the music at the finish line. I remembered how Lelia had encouraged me to give it my all for that last quarter of a mile, so I started to kick it into gear, despite how tired my legs were.

To my surprise, Michael and girls were waiting for me at mile 12.9! They were just standing there, chatting with a race volunteer, waiting for me to come over the bridge. I was so happy to see them, but Michael shouted, “Keep going!!!”, which was probably a good reminder, because I hadn’t thought I’d see them until it was time to stop. Michael started jogging with the stroller behind me.

I gave that last 0.2 all that I had, and when I crossed the finish line, I felt so much relief, and even some sadness to realize it was already over. 13!!! Nella was the only one of our kids still in a good mood, so she was willing to take a picture with me! The other girls were absolutely exhausted from being up so early, an I can’t say I blame them! Nella takes medal-wearing very seriously.
My average overall pace was 9:53 min/mile, and I finished just 29 seconds before my goal time. Overall, I’m really happy with how I did. And now, it’s safe to say I’ve caught the half-marathon bug. I’ve already been contemplating which race will be my next!