13.1 Miles DONE!!!!

Yesterday was the big day. It was the Moab Half Marathon. We left on Friday after I got out of work to go to Green River. That's where we were staying because all of the rooms in Moab have been sold out since November. We got to Green River and went to check into our hotel. Well, when we looked at the confimation email when we got there, it said that our room was confirmed at the Comfort Inn in Oskaloosa, Iowa. I book the room from Comfort Inn's main website, so I was hoping that was the place of their headquaters. We go into the Comfort Inn in Green River and they don't have a reservation for us, and to top it of they are booked for the night and the lady said she thought that everywhere was. We went out to the car and I just started crying. Luckly we found a pretty nice hotel in Green River.
On Saturday morning, we left Green River at 5:30am to get to Moab so I could check in at the race. We hung out for a little bit until it was time for me to go catch the bus that takes the runners up the canyon to the starting line.
When we headed up the canyon it was beautiful, I had to enjoy the scenery then because when I'm running I don't notice much. The course followed the Colorado River the whole way except the last two miles which was in town.
When we got where the bus dropped us off, there was loud music playing, water, gatorade, hot chocolate, and coffee. It was freezing! The sun hadn't come up over the mountains yet and it was definitely cold. We stood there as more and more buses brought runners up. There were 5,000 runners total. Finally after standing there for 2 hours, they finally announced that we could walk up to the actual starting line, which was a 1/2 mile away. By this time, I was starving, because I was to nervous that morning to eat breakfast. When we got to the starting line, it was more standing, streching, standing, waiting, streching. Finally after 45 minutes there, they called the runners who where climbing in the rocks down to come line up. At this point all the nervousness was gone, I was just ready to get going.
After 2 hours and 45 minutes of waiting, the race started. I was feeling great. At mile 3.5 my Ipod froze and I couldn't remember how to reset it, so the next ten miles I had no music and my Nike+ (tells me my pace and how far and long I've run) also wasn't working the greatest. Also at that time the ambulance came up the road to pick someone up behind me. That was a little scary.
A little over an hour into the race and I made it half way, 6.5 miles. I was actually feeling great at this time. After that however it got worse and worse with every mile. My legs were on fire and my hips were aching like mad. At mile 11, I was ready to just walk the rest of the way. Luckily, I had met a friend a little earlier and she caught up to me and we finished the race together. Hallelujah!!!! I did it. I was slower than I expected, but I'm just fine with that, I'm just glad I did it and I finished.
When I got to the finish, Brian lifted Bentley over the fence, and he ran the last little part of the race with me.
I was so tired and sore all I wanted to do was just sit down and never get up again. The park where the race finished was crowded. There really wasn't anywhere to sit down. So I didn't even wait to get my PR (personal record) pin. Brian went and got the car and we left.
It's the next day, and I'm sore, but the strange thing is after all of the pain and suffering, I'm ready to start training for the next. I'm thinking I will do the Mammoth 1/2 marathon at Bear Lake in June. If anyone would like to join me, I would love a running buddy. It's an amazing feeling to finish a 13.1 mile race!!!

I'll post pictures later. My camera was dead, so we borrowed Vicki's and I don't have the cord to download pictures and the pictures aren't up yet on the marathon's website.