Half Marathon time!

Its been a long journey but its coming close to the end. About 7 months ago I made a goal for myself and that was to run a half marathon before the end of the year. Now I am happy to say that I am ready and will be running in my first half marathon in just over a week. I first started training on a treadmill at the gym but the past couple of months I have started running outside and since doing that I have gotten to see/experience some great things and not so great things and I want to share my experiences with you.
I've beome more in Awe of my Savior!
--One big thing that stands out was as I was running near some fields I was able to see 3 deer running (or whichever they do; it has a bounce to it) through the pasture on a cold early morning. Just me and the deer! It was my motivation to keep going!
---Another morning as I was running a shorter run I was just about half done with it started to sprinkle. I thought to myself I better pick up my pace so I don't get stuck outside in a downpour. Here is the awesome part of this....I got back to my car and was turning off my ipod and sat down in the car. As soon as I sat down it came a downpour. It was as if God made it sprinkle on me just to let me know the big rain is coming. He held it off til I was done!!
---Last weekend I had a very bad run that made me wonder if this is something I can really do. So as I went on a run yesterday morning was kind of the comeback run after a bad one. As I was running I saw there was another runner coming towards me. As we got really close the lady said, "Good morning! You are doing a great job!" WOW! The Lord knew I needed this encouragement during my run and sent this lady to encourage me!

Seeing, Feeling, Smelling
--Unfortunately on my run I have seen some not so fun things; dead animals, broken beer bottles, trash, lots of animal poop (which also smelled) Why would someone ever want to put this trash on our Earth?
--I've also the experience of running in sleet. At first I thought it was just rain but then it hurt. Never was able to say I ran in sleet til now.
--Since about October the mornings have been pretty chilly. Luckily I park behind the bank so I am able to see on their sign how cold it is. I have started many runs when it was only 29 degrees. I would wear shorts because I didn't want to get too hot. Therefore I ran pretty good because I couldn't feel my legs.
--One hard part of running is running by the restaurants that smell so yummy. Fuddruckers was the hardest. I believe after I finish this race I will be getting me a burger from there. It has sounded so good to me since I first ran by there and got a whiff.

Learning the concept of running
As I mentioned earlier....I do have some bad running days every now and then. Luckily I haven't had too many. At the beginning of my training experience I could run 6 or 7 miles one day and within the next couple of days I was not able to run hardly 2 1/2 miles. This past weekend it was time for my long run. The plan was to run just over 10 1/2 miles. As I got to 6 miles I was really struggling. It really got me discouraged because I just ran this course the weekend before and it made me think I could not do this. I am thankful to have the support that I do from friends and family in doing this especially during the rough runs. Yesterday I was doing almost the same course but added a couple of miles and I did it just fine! Praise the Lord! I'm learning that even though I want this so bad I cannot over do myself in the process.

Last week of training is about to approach and I'm sooo excited!! Wish me luck! November 21st @8am. (TN time) is when I'll be running and I'm soo excited to have my parents, Joey, and Hayden cheering me on!!!