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| This blog is dedicated to those who were partners with me in this running experiment.
All those who encouraged me: Thank y'all for your words of support and those who really encouraged me through this blog, in person, over email or over the phone. I felt like you were with me and interested in seeing me succeed. It really helped me through the unmotivated times of training. Thanks guys!
To those who showed up at the race to encourage me: Thanks to those who came to the race. You don't know how much I appreciated knowing you were there for me. Thanks to AWong who woke up really early to drive out to see me. She missed seeing me at mile 5, although she was waiting for us, but she was there when I needed her the most at mile 13. The race is 13.1 miles, and at 12.98 I started feeling like I couldn't run anymore. I told Sherise that I would like to walk. That is when I saw AWong who was jumping up and down and cheering for me. I then sucked up my desire to walk, and proceeded to run proudly in front of Awong.
At the 13 mile mark, I wanted to walk again. This is when Alvin ran up and yelled, "Bethany" and started snapping pictures. I saw Alvin's parents in the crowd and tried to pretend that I was not running low on energy. Alvin then started running on the side to try to catch us at the finish line. In my head I thought, I can keep up with him. So I kept running and beat him to the finish line. Now that I look at the pictures, I should have let him beat me so he would have pictures of me from the front and not just the back.
Thanks also to mom and dad Lee who flew out to encourage me. They are awesome. Mom Lee said after the race that maybe she would walk a 1/2 marathon next time. 
And of course, thank you to the SLee family especially Sherise. Sherise would have finished a lot faster, but she said she wanted to stay with me the whole time. She made me stick to the 5 min run/1 min walk schedule, almost the whole time. She let me barrage her with my problems along the race (knee hurting, pebble in shoe, cramps) and she listened, let me walk for a little, but still pushed me to get back to running. She pushed me to run faster and with less walking than I have ever done before. I told her that she could run on without me, and she said that it wasn't about her time, but about all of us finishing. Sherise is a team player. She also knew that if she ran on without me, I probably would have ended up walking the rest of the race. I see from this experience that Sherise has a great heart for people, sacrifices to help others, yet still pushes people to their limits to make them perform at their best. If anyone wants to run a race in the future, I recommend Sherise as a trainer. I also see that Sherise would also be a great discipler.
The SLee family is awesome for since they have the running experience, they give excellent advice. On Saturday morning, I was asking the family what I should eat for breakfast. Dad, daughter one (Sherise), and daughter two all brought out their stashes of energy bars and energy shots (I had no idea what a shot was until I talked to the SLee family). They all have their own stash and was able to give me a bar and a shot. Their advice definitely came in handy the day of the race.
So thanks everybody. I feel so blessed to have had all these interactions with such encouraging people.
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| Yeah! I finished- and in a faster time than what I was going for. I would not have finished as fast without my running partner, Sherise.
I expect to blog more this week about the following things: the awesome support, my running partner, and things I learned running and training for the 1/2 marathon.
But, for today I will give you a quick run-down (with pictures) of this weekend and the race.
Well, on Friday I had to get up at 5am to catch a plane to SF. When I woke up, I noticed that my throat was really scratchy. In the airport, I felt like I was getting sick. I kept sneezing and I was shivering even while wearing 3 layers. So I downed a Im*mune X and got on the plane. All day Friday, I was super stressed that I would get sick.
On Saturday morning, I felt better but my nose was running in the morning. All day, I felt congested. I did take a Day*quil, and I think that helped a little. On Saturday night, I went to sleep around 9:45pm. That night, I woke up a couple of times. When I woke up around 6am, I felt fine. I was thinking about it, "well today is the day I find out whether I crash and burn, or finish the race." I told Alvin that later, and he said, "wow, what a fatalistic attitude." But that is what I was thinking. I have no more time for training, I can either do it or not do it.
My nose felt less congested. I took another Day*quil and the breakfast my trainer's family recommended. The whole time during the race, I never even thought about being sick. The funny thing is, after the race, then I thought, I actually still am a little congested. I believe it was the adrenaline that helped me focus my body not on my nose problem, but on running.
Sherise stuck with me the whole time. She was great; I will dedicate a whole blog entry to how supportive and helpful she was for me on the race. She pushed me hard. She made me stick to my schedule of 5 min run and 1 min walk. Sometimes I bargained for a 2 min walk, but she only granted it like 3 times. She made me run the last mile with no breaks (when all I wanted to do was just walk it). But in the end it was worth it. It felt good to look back at the whole race and know that I not only finished, but I ran it well and finished well.
So here are some pictures.
Here is part of the crowd. I am not in the crowd yet.
This is Sherise and me in the last .1 miles of the race heading for the finish line. I think I was telling her, "I can't run anymore," and then she said, "but the finish line is right there!"
And this is us after the race. Right after the race, we got our finishers medal and then I was thinking, "oh yeah, 1/2 marathon, piece of cake!" This is about 5 minutes after I was whining, "I can't run anymore!" Funny how fast our perspective can change. Afterwards, we went to eat lunch. I wasn't that tired or sore after, but my knees started aching.
Ok, well just wanted to thank you all for your support! I just wanted to let you know I made it.
More entries to come soon!
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| Last night I woke up in the middle of night very anxious about the run on Sunday. I couldn't fall asleep for about 30 minutes. I was in a daze but my heart was beating like crazy and my head was racing about thoughts about running. This is the second time this has happened this week. On Saturday night I also got freaked out in the middle of the night. The funny thing is that when I am going to sleep I don't even think about the race, but something wakes me up in the middle of the night and I can't fall back asleep because of my anxiety. On Saturday, I couldn't fall back asleep for an hour and a half - which made me more anxious that I would get sick this week and not be able to run.
I thought, that's funny, I've never woken up in the middle of the night from anxiety ever before. I am more nervous about this than taking the SATs, starting college, and getting married. Every time I read the race packet, I feel really hot and stressed. The first time I read it, I thought, "wow it is really hot in here." And so I put it down. The second time I started sweating and realized there was a correlation between the packet and my read of the temperature. The third time had the same effect.
Now the new thing I am nervous about is just if my body can even make it to Sunday or if it will kill me by stressing me out. Oh great, another thing to be nervous about.
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| I realized something interesting this weekend - I'm not saying that this says anything about the states, but I just want to say what I noticed.
When I was in LA this weekend, as I was sharing about my fears in running the 1/2 marathon, the response often sounded something like this: "yes, I know how you feel. I felt that the first time I ran my first 1/2 marathon. But by my fourth 1/2 marathon I was not scared anymore." And the freaky part is that this similar conversation happened at least three times this weekend. So I started counting, and I personally know 16 people in Cali that have run a 1/2 marathon. Alvin's sister, brother, and sister-in-law all have run a marathon.
As I thought about it, I could only think of a couple people I know in Texas who have run a half marathon or more. As I see from the comments section that my cousin has -that's one. I know CharLau's sister has - that's two. I have heard that possibly a friend of a friend has run a marathon (or did she run a triathlon?), but that was third hand information. So I guess then I know 16 Californians versus possibly 3 Texans.
I know these stats do not represent a fair sample of the states. Possibly running became a fad among my group of friends in LA, but is just becoming a fad in Dallas among my group of friends. Dallasites are more into ultimate frisbee than Angelinos. I definitely
know more Dallas ultimate frisbee players than LA uf players. Possibly LA is a more suitable training ground for marathons than Dallas. Possibly many of my friends in Dallas have run marathons but like to not gloat or constantly blog about their progress. Possibly Dallasite realize that you can still be fit but not crazy. You may be thinking to yourself, I know plenty of people in Texas who have run 1/2 or more marathons. Yet, I just want to state the facts I am aware of right now.
All I know is that I have been getting very different responses from LA friends compared to Dallas friends. Both of them have been very encouraging. When talking to LA friends, they never trivialized the 1/2 marathon or the fact that it does take a lot of training. In Dallas, I always feel the sense that my friends also are rooting me on no matter what I do.
So please comment on your theories or names of more Texans I may have missed in my stats.
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| 6 days until the run on Sunday and I am starting to get scared.
Last week I ran my last long run of 10 miles. It was supposed to be the run that proved that I could do it.
Yet during the run, I looked pathetic again. I think I only ran about 5 miles and then walked the rest. I kept saying in my head that I should not be allowed to run in the 1/2 marathon because I am a fraud. I am not really able to run the whole thing. I also have so many excuses. I think, "it is too hot," "I didn't get enough to eat," "I just don't feel like running anymore." Yet, although it may affect it a little, I think it just means that I still am not ready. I am still going to try to run the race next Sunday, but I hate that I feel like a fraud. One thing that really helped me continue to run was the encouraging comments that everyone has left me. I think, this person told me not to quit, so I can't quit for their sake. Thanks for all the encouragement. Hopefully I will not quit on Sunday.
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