Half Marathon Mamas

Traditionally, Mother's Day is to be spent with your family. Starting off with breakfast in bed, followed by a nice picnic at the park and dinner out...all the while being lavished with love and affection all day long. Sounds relaxing right? Well, this year was different. Instead of the ultimate pampering day, I decided to put my body through the workout of it's lifetime.


Three of my Colorado friends and I headed to Santa Barbara for the weekend to run in the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon. As some of you know, my training for this race was less than stellar due to a stress fracture in my leg. The doc strongly suggested that I lay off it for two of my critical training months. Thus, I wasn't able to do a lot of the runs I was supposed to. Not sure how that was all going to affect my race, I decided to go for it since the doc said I wouldn't hurt myself any further. Miraculously, God decided to heal my leg a couple days before the race. I'm telling you, it hurt and I could feel it every time I ran, then the day before the race it was all better. I didn't feel it at all and it still doesn't hurt! Amazing.


The race course was incredibly beautiful. There were spirited horses with their colts, long-horned steer, ranches, rows of grapevines, pastures, breathtaking mountain views and a lady in a grass skirt cheering us on while hula dancing. Can you tell that I really enjoyed it? Surprisingly I felt pretty good for the first ten miles until I hit my wall. The one where my mind said, "keep going" and my legs said "ya right!". I managed to keep running (except for that nasty hill at the end) but I couldn't gain any sort of speed into the finish line. It seemed like many people passed me at the end. I guess that's where my lack of training took it's toll...well, that and the fact that my body isn't recovering very fast.


Don't worry, the weekend wasn't all pain and no gain. We spent some time soaking up the sun at Butterfly Beach and strolling the streets of downtown Santa Barbara. We ate out at all my favorite spots, and had a stash of chocolate covered strawberries in the fridge. Of course, we also had a lot of laughs and memories that will last a lifetime...and I've got the world's ugliest medal to prove it.