Can't Stop Won't Stop

I think it is official that I am addicted to running.
I love running.
I can't ( well I can) but don't want to live without it.

So the last few months that I have been suffering with all of these random health issues has been HARD...because I've cut back my running.

But I'm BACK!

The other part of my trip to St. Louis was to run a half marathon there.
Shanna has also become dare I say addicted to running also.
When I reached out to her last year to try and convince her to train and run it with me, she was less than pumped.

Now our entire trip together she was like, "Let's do New York! Wanna do New York?" or "We are still doing that midnight marathon in Nevada in August right?"

She's ALL about it.
So I'm putting the 50 States, 50 Marathons goal out there for myself. You will notice it on the right hand side of this lovely blog!

Halves count. Fulls count. Either or. If it's a Marathon, and it's in a state I haven't run before it goes on the list.

I am very excited at this idea as I also LOVE traveling. And I am eager to combine these two loves to see this great nation of ours.

So there is that!

St. Louis Half Marathon was like the rest of our trip - Interesting!
There was pouring rain...there were quite a few hills.....and for the most part not many spectators, which made it tough running up wet hills.

BUT NOT US! We were fortunate enough to have the amazing MISSOURI EKERN CHEERING SQUAD. Led by the amazing Meghan, Randy and Marna came out early and stayed the whole race, cheering us on at mile 1, 5 and 12. Their bright umbrellas, bright pink TOUGH AS SKULLS sign and Marna's homemade SKULL FLAGS really kept our spirits up. Better yet were their warm smiles and words of encouragement.

From mile 1 - 5 all was good, the knee that has been bothering me started to loosen up a bit and we were wet but happy. Miles 6-10 were AWFUL. No one cheering, we are tired of being wet, and there were 4 or 5 LONG LONG inclines. At one point during this period Shanna looked over at me and was like, "THIS IS SUCKING' and I nodded wholeheartedly in agreement. When she checked her watch it said we were running near a 9 min mile pace! We started with an 8:30 min mile pace! No WONDER we were sucking wind.

Well with only 3 more miles to go at that point we thought, "What do we have to lose!" so we RACED the thing!!! It helped that we were tired, soaked and cold....but I think we were so surprised by our time we wanted to keep it up.

We finished in 2 hours and 6 minutes. A new personal best time for me in the half marathon. My last two times being 2:15 and 2:20! So that is quite a difference. It made me happy :)

Now I am a month out from my NEXT FULL Marathon! That will be Memorial Day Weekend in MADISON!

Meghan will be running her first half! She's going to do awesome. Friends Shanna and Lauren are doing the full. Friends Emily and Megan Fitz are doing the half. It should be a FUN weekend!!

Here are some photos of Shanna and I pre and post race. I don't have too many photos from the race....maybe I will see if Meghan has some.

Here we are still dry and ready to go:

And after! Happy and Soaked.