Girlfrieds Half Marathon 2009

Within a span of about 6 weeks a group of Awesome Mom's I know delivered their second babies. Without knowing it those babies or rather the extra baby weight gained during pregnancy would be a major factor in setting a Goal. "Let's all run the Girlfriends Half Marathon next October!"

There was A LOT of skepticism on my part as I had never ran more than a mile in my life. After hearing another fabulous mom I know talk about her training for a 5k (Couch to 5k program), I thought that I would try that first. In April I finished my first ever 5k, the Starlight Run with great family and friends. It was supposedly one of the hardest 5k's I could have picked because of weather and terrain...lol.

The torture didn't end there and I continued to train with 'the girls' and even got my little sister Annette into running when she moved here in June. She finished her first 5k Race for the Homeless in August. She quickly decided to train with us and jump on the running bandwagon for the half marathon.

In early September I did an 8 mile trail run and injured my left foot. Apparently my left leg is about 1/2 shorter than my right which causes overcompensation on my right leg and cause for injury on uneven surface. I saw a fantastic Sports Medicine Physical Therapist, Dr. John Majerus who helped me return to running by October. Thankfully he cleared me to run the Half :)

October 18, 2009 (my birthday) at 9:00am came very quickly and despite injury in September I was able to run it, an accomplishment I never saw in my future before training with the women pictured next to me. Amanda Simonelli, Erika Henry, Julie Roy and Annette Robarge are incredibly inspiring women that I am happy to know and love.

Amanda finished in 10 minutes under her goal, Erika beat her time from 2 years ago when completing her first half marathon (also Girlfriends) and Julie a seasoned runner is an all around rock star  and the backbone we all leaned on for strength as we trained. Annette ended up finishing 2nd Place in her age bracket-an incredible accomplishment for someone who had never run before moving in with me in June!! She is amazing!

I think I may try it again next year to shave about 40 minutes off my time...until then...Happy RUNNING!!