If this was half way, not the finish, I would kill Myself

We ran a Marathon. 

Well, technically it was only half of one - but I dare you to tell my quads it was only 13.1. They will not believe you. Despite being voluntary torture,  it was actually quite fun overall. The Big Sur half Marathon (which does not take place in Big Sur) is officially my favorite race thus far in my extensive (not) career: beautiful day, well organized, great course, and nice tech shirts (they even had the pink ones in women's sizes for the girls, that sealed the deal for me!)

One downfall: It was crazy crowded! The first two miles were spent just weaving in and out of the crowds and jockeying for personal space. 7,000 people participated - they had to start us in several waves and caged us in estimated finish time corrals. 

I had two goals for this race: 

1) To not despise running after said race, and want to run again

2) Finish under two hours. 

I caught Dan at Mile 10 and we stuck together the rest of the way, but when I looked down at my watch and realized I was pretty close to not finishing under 2, I decided to sprint as fast as I could the last quarter mile. 

I thought Dan was next to me, but apparently he didn't pick up on the strategy. I ended up beating him by a bit - which the Champion of Artichokes is none too pleased about. But I accomplished both my goals, so its all for the cause. 

We got nifty ceramic medals and a box for food after crossing the finish. The food tent was pretty sweet. I  loaded up with fruit and a bagel and a muffin, and then I went to grab a hard earned and much deserved sugar cookie. And I was denied! "If you got a muffin, you can't have a cookie!" What?!? Had I known that I never would have touched this vile poppy-seeded monstrosity. 

And that was the worst part of the whole event. So help me, I will get a cookie next time!

Before moving here, Monterey was described to me as "Paradise." But if this is Paradise, I would like my townhouse to be in the 7th circle of hell, please; I'd feel more comfortable there. I found myself to be very unhappy for the first while we were here... I felt my hard earned arabic brains melting away as I led a seemingly inane existence. I felt like I was stagnating and being passed by as my peers back at BYU were graduating, getting jobs, and moving on. Then I ran (well, actually walked a fair amount) of an Artichoke filled 5k. It felt good. So I set a goal, a lofty one for someone who could only run a single mile without stopping. I signed up to run the Big Sur Half Marathon. Exercise gave me a purpose, a goal, and  quantifiable progress as I got faster and ran longer.  Doing our long runs together on Saturday mornings  gave Dan and I a rare chance to share a common interest (though I'm thinking of getting into this new Call of Duty Black Ops, NOT). So cheesy as it sounds, I feel like this Half Marathon changed my life. You may now throw up.