Beast and the Beauty

On August 29th I (meaning Andrea, many of you may think it was Jeremy whereas he's an AWESOME runner and incredibly talented but no it was the lesser of the talented Me.) Ran 13.1 miles just because I could..well that and I had an awesome partner who said I could..well and it oddly enough sounded like fun. I've been training with my partner Mindy for quite a few months. We've been running together for a little over a year and at the beginning of the Summer she suggested it and I decided why not. It was an A*M*A*Z*I*N*G experience that I would do again and again. We chose to do the top of Utah half marathon which is held in my second home a.k.a. Logan. There were over 2200 runners ranging in age from 12-79! I was super excited and nervous at the start of the race and even threw up at mile 2 but was able to make up some good time and finished in just over 2 hours. I lost my running buddy after Mile 2 and seriously had to do some serious soul searching on why I was running the race but after I concluded that I was running the race for me and only me and it really didn't matter what my time was and I realized I didn't have to impress anybody with a killer awesome time. I really relaxed and got into the grove of running. I felt great through out the rest of the race and really enjoyed myself..I know it sounds impossible to be able to enjoy yourself while running but I really did. And now I'll show you pictures of me running and the post race...I'm going to warn you that I look far less than adorable and I'm really aware that I am super sweaty and these are in no way glamorous but I'm super proud of them anyway.

Me waving to all my wonderful family that should up and all my great friends who helped cheer me on! (sidenote: I'm seriously staring at my little girls because there hair wasn't done and I was mortified they were out in public with hair like that..shallow?? Maybe but I'm a mom and hair that is neglected means a child has been neglected (k not really but I have issues with it) (Obviously.))


I thought this was my end time but no...I had to wait in a line for them to take off my ankle chip..that really really sucked. mainly because I was sure I was going to throw up again at any second.

Me with my girls afterwards if you notice in my hand I have 4 cups that I guzzled so fast and another two not pictured that I drank before that. I was thirsty and oh so hungry!

Cute Abby even if her hair is neglected.

Everyone kept calling to see where I was so I just went and sat by the ambulance so people could find me..I figured it was the safest place for me to be.

This is Mindy...she's awesome she finished in an hour 48 minutes...she won't tell you she's awesome though, just because she's that kind of person. I'm so glad she helped me train she really is the best running buddy a person can ask for.

Now that you've endured those nasty pictures however inspiring they are....... after the race I went back to Jeremy's parent's house and cleaned up I had an amazing photo shoot with Brooke Snow which I'm pretty sure I cyber-stalk she is INCREDIBLE. Anyhow she took THESE photo's. I felt so awesome taking them not because I'm a super babe but because I had set a goal that day and majorly accomplished it and I was super happy with myself. It really shows in my smile and the last picture of me jumping in the air...holy crap after I did that and landed I realized how tired my legs where after running 13.1 miles but still a great experince that everyone should be able to have.

ummm in case you were wondering about the title of this blog post I was both the Beast and the Beauty I looked pretty beastly in the running pictures and I felt Beautiful in my little photo shoot.

The End