I have completed a half marathon. 13.1 miles. Here is my story!

We had to be in the lobby of the hotel at 3:45am on Sunday. We made it on time, checked in, and hopped on the bus. Pitch dark outside. Are we the only one's awake? Where are all the other cars?

The bus drops up off about ¾ of a mile from where we need to go. What is going on? Aren't I walking enough later? Do we need to add to it now? Julie and I wait. We throw my sweatshirt on the ground (luckily it wasn't cold, scary for how hot it might be later) and sit. We sit, and wait and sit. We wait about an hour and a half. Suddenly we realize it is light and there are so many people around us. We take turns waiting for the bathroom (gotta love porta pottys).

The Marine band goes by. Time to get in our corral. Wow, it is time. We hear the Wheelchairs take off. We all clap as they leave on their journey, while we wait still.

The gun goes off. We are still waiting. We are in the back and don't start to move for another 5 minutes or so. It took about 13 minutes to get to the start. We are off! Woo Hoo! Look at all those people! Thousands and thousands of people.

A band is playing around half a mile and people are cheering along the side. I thought there would be more people cheering. After mile one people are thinning out, finding their pace. We go along, comfortable. Where is mile 2?

Into mile 3, Julie needs to use the restroom. We are slowing down some. Too much water and too much excitement. There is the restroom, one lonely porta potty. We wait. Julie's turn and then my turn. We are off again. Oh, Julie is a new person now. I think she is ready to take off and leave me behind. The Team in Training (TNT) Sweeper tells us if we cut through we can lose about a mile and catch up to everyone else. No way. Neither of us want to do that and we are pissed he even brought it up. (Turns out it would have been about 4 miles too!) We walk on.

Suddenly our TNT Sweeper is replaced with another Sweeper, Brandon. He has a whole bunch of balloons tied to his waist and is walking all casual. We introduce ourselves and tell him we are glad the other guy is gone. We walk on.

Around 6.5 miles this cop pulls up and tells us in a not so nice way that all the cars and clean up crew are waiting on us. Brandon tells him "That is what you are for", the cop says "Oh I am huh?" (Who cares this guy is getting paid big bucks to work this event on a Sunday and all he is doing is riding around on his motorcycle). I tell him "It isn't so easy to walk 13 miles". He says, "I used to run 17 miles in the Army all the time". (Yeah, trust me that was about 25-30 years ago and about 50 pounds ago too!). Julie tells him "But you weren't helping to cure cancer when you were doing it". So he leaves. Jackass. We walk on.

Mile 7, Brandon tells us we are doing a great job. We need to pick it up some because we need to get on the freeway at mile 8. He said if we get there, he would throw himself in front of any car that tries to close the freeway before we are done. We pick it up and pass a girl in front of us. We walk on (faster).

There are people cheering. Random people on the street, or yelling from their windows "you are doing a great job. Keep it up! Thank you for what you are doing!" I wish I could thank each and every one of those people. They made such a difference. One officer pulled up and asked why everyone was wearing purple. I told her it was TNT and we are walking to help cure blood cancer. She thought it was an amazing thing we were doing. It WAS an amazing thing. We walk on.

I was so hot. Whenever we passed a water station I was pouring water on my head, down my back and on my face. Nothing was helping. I almost felt like I was going to explode I was so hot! I don't think I have ever been so hot. Could you have fried an egg on me?

We entered the freeway. Julie was looking so forward to walking on the freeway. Needless to say, Julie realized it was way over rated. We never realized how many holes there are on the freeway. Miles 7, 8, 9 were so hard. My muscles weren't sore or anything but I was so physically exhausted. I didn't know how I could go on. I honestly thought at one time, "Maybe I can fake pass out right now, no one will know". But somehow I went on.

Julie and Brandon were a huge help. Brandon kept playing Chariots of Fire behind us on his cell. (Mind you, he was still out for a stroll, enjoying his Starbucks). Mile 9 I realized I had to go the bathroom REALLY bad. I actually asked for a ride to the rest room but the van had just left with one girl who was behind us. That was okay; I didn't really want to cheat any way. Julie ran ahead and checked that there was toilet paper. Is that a good friend or what?

Out of the bathroom at mile 10, I felt great! Let's go. I was wearing a picture of my dad on my bum and in the front. I must have knocked the one on my bum loose. I told Julie to take it off. I kissed my dad and threw him to the side of the freeway (THAT, my dad would appreciate). And on we went. We walk on.

Brandon was great about keeping us talking and not thinking about how tired we were. We walked on. Mile 11. Geez, it took a long time to get here. Sometime around here we realized that we already walked 11. We walked. I am completely out of water at this point. My camelback was dry.

Mile 12. This is it! Julie and I picked up the pace. "Let's just get done". We walked fast! We passed a stop that had pretzels and water. A few more yards, I tell Julie I have a pretzel in my mouth, I can not swallow it or spit it out, there is NO saliva to do either. Luckily Julie had some water to give me. After that, I licked the pretzels and threw them to the ground. We pass about five people. We WANT to be done.

"Julie, please tell me you see 13. I don't think I can keep this pace up much longer". She sees it! She sees it! Oh my God, we are almost done. We walked. Mile 13, we are here. So close. We have to cross the street and there is the finish line. I see my brother, Tony, Emma and Holly. I tell my brother "I can't believe I finished", he said "you haven't yet", but I had. I knew I would, there was no doubt. It was a formality at this point.

13.1 miles, crossed the finish line. We were done. OH MY GOD, we are done! Really done. I got my medal. It is finally okay to sit down. No! Don't sit down. You still have to walk WAY over there to check in (only about 30 feet but it felt like forever!) I check in and sit down. I call Eric, "I DID IT!"

WOW. I still can't believe. I hug Tony, Emma, and Holly and tell them thank you for being here. Julie's boyfriend, Ryan makes sure the bus will wait for us. We get on the bus and I am still woo hooing. Man my feet hurt, so bad. We get out of that bus and into another bus and go back to the hotel.

Julie showers and calls room service while I shower. We lay in bed and relax. Room service comes. Ryan answers the door and gives us our food. We eat and we are out! Sleep! Sleep!

We wake up and go to the Victory Party. We feel good. Eat and go back to the hotel. Sleep for the night.

Monday morning I woke up. I told Julie "At first I was going to say it felt like a truck ran me over, but I would say it is more like a train!" We headed home. I am home in my husband's arms and hearing how proud of me he is. Ahh, that made it worth it right there.

People ask me if I would do it again. I say that is like asking someone who JUST had a baby if she is going to have any more. I don't know. I will enjoy smaller walks. 5K's, 10K's, but beyond that I don't know.

I have completed something that less than 1% of the population ever complete. That is amazing and I am SO proud of myself!