The miracle isn't that I finished, it's that I had the courage to start. -John Bingham

You might remember a while ago when I posted about the Wrigley 5K that Mr. B and I ran in June. That was step one on the path to running the Long Beach 1/2 Marathon in October. I run a few times a week, short ones, maybe 2-4 miles. I started upping my mileage about 6 weeks before the big race. My first "long run" was 6 miles. From home to the Long Beach airport. I too Pexie, she was pissed when we were done. I felt triumphant.
Sunday mornings were my times for the long runs. The hubs began joining me. We run at different paces, I'm more of a  penguin... slow and steady like. Breeze even joined us on a run, home from the Cerritos Mall. We were trying out different routes around Long Beach and seeing if it felt better to run, "from home" or "to home". Going from 6ish to 7ish to almost 8 was working well for us. Then the sick swept through our house. Taking us out one by one. After a two week running hiatus, we were just two weeks away from the LB marathon. Figuring that we'd been appropriately training, we decided to up our mileage even more to 10.
We each had our own playlists and we were both feeling great during the run. With a mile to go, I started doing a running dance inspired by Katy Perry and her Fireworkageness blasting in my earbuds. I felt it after we got back to the car...

Thanks to Groupon, Mr. B got us a smokin deal on VIP entries to the Gladiator Rock'n'Run at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Up and down bleachers, over tires, through tubes, over walls of wood and cargo nets, through icy pools, belly crawling through mud, carrying 40lb bags of rice, climbing over walls... all while our kiddos cheered us on. Nothing gets you over a wall faster than hearing little voices say, "Go Mommy Go! Go Mommy Go!".
It was a great experience and running by Mr. B's side eased the pain of whatever was wrong in my leg (darn you Katy Perry).
We finished, passed on our free beer, desperately attempted to clean some of the mud off of our bodies and hopped in the RV and drove home. That was a napping day.

The following Saturday, we took the Blue Line downtown for JT to participate in the Aquarium of the Pacific, Kids 1 mile run! He was AWESOME and finished 12th in his age group running a mile in 8 minutes!

We went to the Long Beach convention center afterwards to the Marathon Expo to pick up my racing bib and d-chip which would record my time. At the last minute, Mr. B. thought that he could use his time waiting/cheering for me wisely and signed up for the Run Forrest Run 5K sponsored by Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.

Marathon Morning, we were up in the dark. While I'd spent the last couple weeks with my leg in excruciating pain, the adrenaline took over and I was feeling great. I guess I should give a little shout out to the Hydrocordone that was in my medicine cabinet. Hey, I was prepared. Mr. B and I took the metro downtown again. Race began at 7 but I put myself in the last wave, the 7:30 for the 3hr 30min and over crowd. I wasn't so much focused on speeding though the race as I was concentrating on not dropping dead! Over 20,000 runners! Lemme just say, I crossed the line and I didn't stop running until the 10 mile mark. I walked/ran the remainder. I was surprised to see the most handsome face in the world at mile 11. He had finished his 5K in just under 30 minutes then after hanging around, made his way along the race course until he found me. Then he ran with me for almost two miles at which point i made my way down the finish line and he couldn't come with any further.

 Can you imagine my elation when I found out that not only had I survived the race but I finished in 2 hours, 59 minutes and 50 seconds? Under 3 hours, that's right! Not dead, done faster than I thought! Woot Woot! Not one to stick around for hullabaloo, we made our way back to the train and came home to our kiddos. JT played a ballgame that evening. Aside from the fact that I'd just ticked another thing off of my bucket list, it was just another day. An awesome, crazy cool, hell yeah kind of day.

**update- so after a trip to the doctor and a few x-rays, I have a stress fracture of the left tibia. yeah, rocking out to katy perry (aka running like a crazy person) and upping my mileage too quickly make the old stompers mad. no running for 6 weeks unless i want permanent and more serious damage. yikes. waiting patiently for december...