Toothsome Family Treadmill 1/2 Marathon

Many of you, may or may not remember my post over a year ago, when I posted that before I die, I was going to run a 1/2 marathon. I then did this post, announcing that I had indeed picked a 1/2 marathon to run and was training for it.

As often happens with life, things got in the way. My husband's (who was his school's Senior class president), 20th reunion conflicted with the above mentioned 1/2 marathon. (We didn't know the exact date of the Slacker 1/2 marathon or he wouldn't have scheduled the reunion that day.) I found another 1/2 marathon here in Utah but it conflicted with my side of the family's annual family reunion. I did find another one that conflicted with another obligation I have this summer (Girl's Camp for you Mormon readers.) So, I gave up trying to find an organized 1/2 marathon date that would work with my schedule and decided to just run my own to prove to myself that I could indeed do it.

Because I have young kids and I don't like to leave them unnecessarily with babysitters or even at gym "kid care centers" ALL of my running has been on our treadmill in our family room--including my long runs. It has worked for me. My kids are in the room with me and with the exception of one time, when my then 5 and 3 year olds covered my kitchen table with blue painter's tape and I didn't know about it until after I got off the treadmill, there has been little to no drama. They play, we talk (they were talking to me the whole time they were covering the table in blue tape but because the treadmill noise is eerily similar to that of masking tape being taken off its roll, I didn't clue into what they were doing), and I run. I like how the treadmill keeps track of my pace, gives me calorie burn (albeit probably not super accurately) and I have a general sense of how I am progressing. My longest run before this was 8.5 miles at a 10 minute mile pace.

So, yesterday, I ran "The Toothsome Family (insert my real last name for those who know it), Treadmill 1/2 marathon." You should know, I was supposed to do it on Memorial Day but I had been up all night with a 3 year old with an ear infection, so we delayed it 6 days. Again, the life of a mother.) So, here are pictures to document it.

Before I started, I made various water bottles with gatorade and water in them and set them by the treadmill. I put in one of my favorite movies, "Dan in Real Life" and pushed the "start button" on the treadmill.

I told Dentist Husband, I was going to start at 8:00 am but was nervous and couldn't sleep, so I finally got up and started at 6:30 am (after eating a bowl of Mini Wheats at 6:00 am.) I had to take this self portrait since no one else was awake.

Shortly after I started, Dentist husband and Toothsome #2 woke up. They took the rest of the pictures. The banner says, "Happy 1/2 Marathon Day! Go Mom!"

During my first mile. Notice the dish rag I used as my sweat cloth.

10 miles left. I should mention, I am purposely wearing my husband's dental office t-shirt. I joked with him that "South Mountain Dental" sponsored the race. Which is completely true. South Mountain Dental (my husband's paychecks) bought the treadmill, the food I ate, the clothes I wore for the year plus of training. :) Never has a sponsor been more directly financially and emotionally involved then my husband, who is the sole owner, of South Mountain Dental.

1/2 way through

10 miles behind me. If anyone is curious, I set the treadmill for just over an 11 minute pace. I increased it slowly as I ran once I had a sense for what this race was going to require out of me.

One mile left. (Just so you know, I am a sweater, as in I sweat a lot, by biology. Yes, it is gross and it freaks some people out but "they" say it is good for you.)

Looking down as the final mile burns down.

Almost there.

Done.

The t-shirt (after it had been washed) designed by my kids and Dentist husband. (The paper is covering up our last name but it also has the stats written down by toothsome #2 while I was running. I finished in 2 hours and 25 minutes--an exact 11 minute pace. You can also see the blue medal Toothsome #2 made for me. It says "First Place" which is true, since I was the only one running this race. I burned 1238 calories.

All in all it was a success. I can say it was very fun to have my husband and kids all in the room with me while I was running. They all cheered at various milestones, handed me my water bottles, asked how I was feeling, etc.

When it was all done, I was surprised how good I felt. Yes, I had soreness but I never felt like I was getting too tired or that I just couldn't do it. (Which sometimes even during my short runs, when I was training, I felt like that.) So, all and all is was success. Do I plan on running an outdoor, competitive non-treadmill race? Likely. But really, I accomplished what I set out to do over a year ago and that is prove to myself that I could do it. And, I did.