Last year my oldest brother
Jason called to tell me that he was inspired by me and decided to take up running. I was real proud of him, because we could share a love of running together, and I didn't feel like to much of a black sheep in our family with myself being the only runner. He signed up for his first 5k, when he finished he called me and I could just hear the excitement in his voice. I remember telling him to watch out, he'd wind up running a half marathon before he knew it, but he was quick to say "I'm not quite there yet, not that crazy."
Come the end of September, he called me to tell me that he had just signed up for his first half marathon and asked me to join him. How could I say no to joining my oldest brother in his first half marathon?! This would mark my 3rd half marathon, and the first one I'd actually properly train for. The
Sarasota Half Marathon is 13.1 miles of pure party city! A band at every mile, girl scout cookies around mile 9, beer just before mile 13, and the most amazing spectators I've ever been around during a race. We made the drive from Virginia all the way down to Sarasota, Florida, a very long drive with 3 kids! My parents flew in the Friday before the race to watch us, and I have to say, having family there to cheer you on is very humbling and motivating at the same time.
My brother runs a much faster pace than I do, so he went further up in the corral than I did. I had a technical issue with my music, I created a playlist on Spotify and didn't realize I had to download the playlist in order to listen to it during my run. About mile 1, my music stopped and while there were bands along the course, I had a pumped up playlist to push me through. Around mile 4, my brother and I passed each other and I got an awesome high 5 which pushed me to run a bit longer than I was being told to run through my RunKeeper application.
Around mile 6, I was looking at my watch and trying to figure out how my pace was going, and surprisingly I was doing a lot better than I thought. I looked up to see my dad and my sister-in-law on the side of the road cheering me on. After I had passed them I wound up getting choked up and shedding a few tears because it was just an amazing feeling to see my family there on the course cheering for me. Usually when I do races, it's super early in the morning and I leave my husband and kids at home so I'm not having to wake up the kids at 5am to make it to the race destination just to stand there and wait on me.
Around mile 10, my back started giving me problems and so my run/walk cycle became more of a walk/walk/run/walk cycle. I do have to say it's a HUGE improvement from years past where I'd be in complete pain come mile 7-8 and ready to give up. We ran through the botanical gardens, and oh was the sight absolutely amazing. When I came up on mile 13, I made it a point to start running again until I crossed the finish line. As I got closer, I saw my youngest sitting on the barrier gate with my husband and gave him a high five, shortly after I crossed the finish line, there was my dad, mom, nieces, sister-in-law, my other son and daughter, and my brother all waiting for me and cheering me on. Having family there at the end to greet you after a long run just gives you a very emotional and loving feeling.
I have to say, this is by far one of the best races I've ever participated in, I loved it so much that I wound up signing up for the race in 2016. I'm looking forward to running this again, and this time with my brother, sister-in-law, and possibly my oldest son who has expressed his interest in wanting to run a half marathon with me one day.
