Something Snarky: Knoxville Half Marathon 2012

There are a few things in my life that I've always said were stupid and I'd never do them.

- Bungee Jumping
- Sky Diving
- Triathalons
- Tattoos
- Climbing Mt Everest
- Caving
- Running a half or full marathon

There's a trend here.. it's really anything that involves jumping off something tall, intense training, small enclosed spaces, or extreme pain.

You never have to worry about me doing any of these things, except for 1. Running. I don't know why I suddenly started thinking of the half marathon as something I could do. Maybe it was the mentality of "if that person from high school who I KNOW was not athletic can do it, then dammit so can I". Maybe it was the pain killers I was still on from my recent surgery. Maybe it was peer pressure. Who knows. All I know is, in the last week of February, with no training at all, I decided I could run a half marathon on April 1st.

Friggin' brilliant Kate. Yeah, I'm talking to you self.

Back up.

I've never been what I consider to be "a runner". A runner to me is someone who can go out and crank out a few sub 8 minute miles. Run a 5K (3.1 miles) in under 22 minutes. I'm more of a constant jogger. I run the same pace ALL THE TIME. And my pace is not fast. Before this half, the most I'd ever run in a race was a 10K (6.2miles). A half marathon is 13.1 freaking miles. More than twice what I'd ever run before.

But I had a group of friends who were running it. J was the leader. She was religiously running, following the Hal Higdon's Half Marathon Novice program. I religiously ran when everyone else did... sometimes... well I did the long runs... and ran a few times on my own. Per my own admittance, I did not train enough for this..

PS -
This course is HARD. Running in Knoxville is hard. It's humid. The hills are trying to kill you. Seriously you feel like you're climbing mountains at some spots (Mile 7 - Noelton - evil).

There was a point around mile 11 where I yelled "I JUST WANT TO BE DONE!!!" and the lady next to me did NOT appreciate that. However, my running buddy M agreed.

We all managed to stay together for the first 6-7 miles but then we split off. J, the religious runner finished first, followed by K, who is naturally athletic and I think actually only ran 2 long runs to prepare for this, then M & I, and then B, who sadly got sick half way through the race and had to take a minor pit stop...

We all finished between 2:06 and 2:28 I believe. My goal was the 2 hour mark, which I did not hit, but I was close, and I survived, so I'll take it. Will I be signing up for the 2013 Half Marathon? Not likely.

My parents and husband were waiting for us at the finish so they were able to capture some great pictures - I was so happy to see them, it meant we were DONE RUNNING!!!