I ran two Half Marathons (HM) in the month of October. I began training in July which, in Florida, is not a fun thing. The heat was unbearable. I plugged along with the hopes that it would be cooler in October and much easier. October arrived, but the cooler weather did not. I finished the race under my goal of 2:30. My time was 2:28:30. I am very proud of this accomplishment.

My second HM came as quite a surprise. We had a trip to Virginia planned to visit Liberty University. It was alumni weekend. We purchased an alumni package which included a 5K race. It was 2 weeks after the HM, but I didn't think that would be a problem. I received a call from the school asking if I still wanted to run the race and which one did I want to run, the 5K or the HM. This was Monday after my first HM, so I said I would run the HM. I was still on a high. I was feeling no pain not really tired, so this on should be no problem right?

To begin with, it was COLD. The high was predicted as only th low 50s. When I got there, I found out it was a trail race. The drive up the mountain should have clued me in. I asked the guys there if they thought I would be okay and showed them my shoes AND told them I was from Florida. They still said I would be okay. I still didn't know what I was getting in to. There were only about 80 people running the race. We all lined up and proceeded down a very narrow trail. I suddenly had a pinching sensation on my legs, then my arms and my face. There were huge black flies biting me. Fortunately there were ladies around my that got them off me. My hand was quite swollen at the end of the race.

Right off the bat we went up 2 very steep inclines, I was almost on all fours. I looked at the elevation chart from the race, during the first 2 miles the climb was 400 feet. That is much taller than any bridge(our mountains) in town. We crossed little bridges, the first was made of branches, a few of which were missing, it was precarious at best. I even crossed a 5 inch wide culvert. Sounds like disaster for a clutz like me. It had rained and the leaves were wet. There were places where I couldn't tell where the trail was, it looked just like the rest of the woods. I was concerned about getting lost, but was told that was no problem. Just follow the pink ribbons. Oviously, they didn't know who they were talking too. At one point in time, I stood in the middle of the woods looking for the pink ribbon. I got off trail twice. One time I looked down the hill to my left and saw a kid walking and a pink tape, fortunately I got back on course fairly easily. We were going down so steeply at times I would slip and fall. I took a pretty good tumble with about 2 miles to go. I was so tired, I guess I wasn't lifting my feet very high and there were rocks, roots, trees everywhere. We had to climb over several huge fallen trees, that was hard at the end. I got of trail again with about a 1/2 mile to go, there was a guy behind me that had done the 5K and was hanging out to cheer the racers on, helped me find my way. I had actually realized I was off trail and was heading back and he saw me. I was able to run around the lake to the finish line.

I was alone in the woods for most of the time. This was very difficult for me. No mile markers and only 3 water stations. There were times I was yelling at myself for getting into something as stupid as this. I was 70 out of 75 finishers. There were only 3 in my age catagory and the other ladies finished ahead of me. My time was 3:21:03. Almost a full hour longer than my first. This was a task more difficult than childbirth, but I have survived both.