Meet the Muir Family: Hershey Half Marathon

Today was the day of reckoning. It started off with weeks and weeks of running and sweating first in the hot, humid July/August air and later in the cold darkness of night during October. Training for this race took a lot of preparation, not just the week or even day before or morning of the race but months of training and making healthy decisions. Logging more miles than I care to count...running in the rain, running early in the morning, running late at night when I only had my flash light on my phone to light the way, and running even on days when I didn't want to, was all to prepare for this race.

It took lots of dedication, persistence, patience, trial and error, over coming a few set backs, pushing forward when I wanted to stop, listening to my body, cursing at all the hills I had to run up, thanking God that he then gave me the luxury of being able to run down those hills, and most of all sacrifice and having an amazing support system.

Scott was extremely supportive of all the training I had to do. He would watch the kids early on the weekends when I had my long training runs, he would go into work late a few times when I had to run in the morning and more than once he came home early from work so that I wouldn't have to run my entire run in darkness. He never complained and never once told me I had to sacrifice my training runs for something else that was going on. The only thing I heard from him was, "you can do it!" Without him supporting me I wouldn't be able to get all my training in. Love you :)

My running buddy Devon was amazing too! She is my girlfriend from college that I met during a summer semester accounting class. We became instant friends and have been each other's inspiration. Her and I both use this app on our phones called MapMyRun. You can link to your friends that use that app and check in on all their workouts. It was a way for us to keep each other accountable. We also sent each other care packages, silly cards, pinned inspirational quotes on Pinterest and talked and talked and talked.

Even with all the training there is still a lot that goes into preparing for the actual race. You can't just show up. We researched and read articles on running and eating and this and that. I like to use the analogy of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Everything we did had to be "just right." The week leading up to the race we had to still continue to train. We couldn't run to far or to short but just the right amount. We couldn't drink too much liquids (deplete our electrolytes) or to little liquid (dehydrate) but just the right amount. We had to eat not only the right foods but the right amount of foods at the right time. A nice pasta dinner with meat sauce and steamed broccoli and water for our pre-race dinner and oatmeal, banana, peanut butter on a bagel and water for breakfast pre-race was just what we needed to fuel our bodies. We also memorized the course so we could visualize the race in our minds and we knew where the aid stations were and created a strategy for running the race. There is a lot that goes into running a great race!

Initially we did this to challenge ourselves....it was Devon's first half marathon and my second (my first was the Denver Half Marathon in Oct. 2008)...but we ended up with much more. Have you heard the phrase...."It's not the destination but the journey." That applies to us! For myself, I became more relaxed, had more patience, was happier, eating and sleeping better and was all around a better wife and mom! Bonus! We had a goal of just finishing the race...then as our training progressed and we gained more confidence our goal was to run 13.1 miles in under 2 hours and 30 minutes. We'd be pushing ourselves but a doable and attainable goal!

Here we are at the starting line. We arrived right before 7 am and between walking to the stadium, waiting in line to drop off our bags, waiting in line to go to the bathroom while stretching at the same time and then walking to the start we had less than 1 minute before the race began. With lots of faster runners ahead of us we crossed the start line with 3:30 on the clock. Ready- Set- Go!

Thanks for wearing the bright hunter color. Easy for our families to spot us!

Mile 1 – We quickly realized after the first few turns that we needed to look ahead and anticipate them, we spent the rest of the race (politely) elbowing ourselves into the optimal position to cut those turns as much as possible (while still being on the course)! We didn’t want to have to run any more than we had too. Even with my music playing through my ear plugs I could still hear the thousands of feet hitting the pavement at the beginning of the race before everyone starts to spread out. It’s very calming and there is nothing quite like it. I also really loved running with thousands and thousands of spectators cheering us on the first mile and again between miles 2 and 3 and sprinkled throughout the course. Their homemade signs of inspiration and funnies kept us from focusing on how hard we were working.

Mile 2-10 – These were the easy miles for me. After warming up during the first mile my body went into autopilot. It feels like I could run forever. There was a good mix of hills to break up those long stretches of flat road. Running up the hill uses different muscles than running on flat ground, but the best part was then lengthening our stride and shaking out our arms and upper body and flying down the hill. Again working different muscles and then eventually the hill would level out and we are back to autopilot.

Mile 10 – This is where I started to struggle. After running for a straight hour and 45 minutes my body started to get tired and so did my mind. I thought I had the course memorized and was expecting that our next turn would take us closer to the finish line but instead it had us going in the opposite direction. That really screwed with me mentally. Also, during this time my upper thighs were burning and I was fighting an upset stomach. I quickly pulled out the biofreeze (thanks for reminding me I had it Devon!) and rubbed it liberally on each thigh and immediately I couldn’t feel them anymore. It was awesome! I realized that the Gatorade at each aid station was making my stomach upset after taking a few swigs at the aid station at mile 9. I almost threw up right then and there. Thanks for listening to me complain the last 3 miles Devon! Hopefully you just tuned me out but turning your music up! JBut on we pressed!

Mile 11 – They had a chocolate aid station set up along this mile and when we saw this on the course I thought it was a fun idea and that it would be a yummy treat to gobble down after all the running we had to do to get there. Well, was I wrong. I could barely lift my arms to grab two chocolate bars and almost didn’t have enough energy to stuff them into my running pack. The kiddos got them post race! I had to give them something for waiting 90 minutes to see me run!

Mile 12- This and mile 10 was probably the toughest for me. Mentally I knew there was only 1 more mile to go but after running 12 running 1 more felt almost impossible. We ran up one of the last hills then crossed a huge empty parking lot that had nothing to block the cold wind from whipping against our damp clothes. I remember telling Devon “I’m so cold!” I kept looking for my family along the course starting around mile 6 when the spectators seemed to pop up and didn’t see them. So I figured they’d be waiting at the finish line. But during this mile after making one of the last turns Devon called out to me “It’s your mom!” I looked and saw Katie, Mikey and my Mom and Dad standing among throngs of spectators and I got emotional and had to stop and give them all kisses. They couldn’t have been in a more perfect place to give me that extra push that I needed to cross the finish line. I heard Katie say as I was running away, “That’s my mommy!” I know they were proud of me!

Mile 13 – Devon and I finished strong. The last mile there were again thousands lining the course cheering us on. Obviously you can’t stop now! We saved enough in our energy banks to sprint the last .2 miles to the finish line! We did a great job finishing at 2:19:45 for me with less than 1 second difference between us. I shaved almost 13 minutes off my time 5 years prior.

We are already looking for our next race and shopping for warmer winter running clothes. Don’t be surprised if the next time you see me I’m in running gear. It seems to be my uniform of choice these days.

It was an amazing journey and I’m thrilled I got to run beside Devon the entire time! Thank you so much Devon. You pushed me in more ways than you know. Love you!

Devon's hubby snapped this of Devon and I crossing the finish line just moments before.

Right after finishing. We needed to keep moving even though we were so sore.

Showing off our finisher medals. My race bib is half attached my long sleeve shirt and half attached to my undershirt. I tried switching at mile 5 when I got really hot but decided to keep on my long shirt. So I ran like that the rest of the way.

Jamie, Mikey, Bryan, my Mom and Matt came to find me inside the Stadium. My Dad couldn't come in with Katie because he had a diaper bag! See my huge sausage fingers. It took 3 days before the swelling went down enough for me to attempt to take my rings off.