The Half Marathon

It’s been a long process, but for a good cause.  My husband and I trained for a half marathon to help raise money for our friend’s son, JJ, who was paralyzed in a car accident just before Thanksgiving.

On behalf of JJ and his family, we’d like to thank everyone who donated towards his medical expenses and helped by sharing his story over 1.1k times on social media.  I checked his fundraiser page today and saw that friends, family and readers like you helped to raise over $30,000 for him!  You can help too: DONATE NOW

Special kudos to my friends from the original cast of “American Grit” on FOX who made training videos as part of the fundraising effort:  David Neville, Mark Bouquin, Brooke Van Paris and Tony Simmons.

If you ever thought about running a half marathon (13.1 miles) or any other long distance race for that matter, here is a list of all the blog posts, which I hope you’ll find useful.

• Why I’m Running A Half Marathon
• How Do I Train for a Half Marathon?
• Will Training for a Marathon Help Me Lose Weight?
• 3 Power Words to Get You Through the Run
• Run Faster – Workout by Olympian David Neville
• Foam Rolling
• Winter Running Clothes
• Lisa’s Training Schedule & bonus Blister Care Video by Mark the Lumberjack, Winner of “American Grit”
• Potty Talk for Runners
• Dynamic Warm Up – Workout by Elite OCR Racer Brooke Van Paris
• Running with Children and Other Silly Ideas
• 5 Tips to Prevent Chaffing
• Uphill Downhill Technique – Video by NFL star Touchdown Tony Simmons
• 7 Ways to Deal With An Injury
• Still JJ

And now….

Half Marathon Story

48 Hours Before Marathon Checklist:

• Eat pasta
• Pick up bibs and tracking gear
• Check out awesome things like The Original Worm massage balls at the Expo
• Find parking locations near the start/finish line

24 Hours Before Marathon Checklist:

• Bubble paint T-shirts
• Lay out runner’s belt (include Gu, water bottle and tissues)
• Make sure music is uploaded and iPod is charged
• Go to the Daddy/Daughter dance or take your son to an amusement park.  (OK, that’s not part of a normal checklist, it just happened in our case)

Day of the Race:

• Meet up with runner friends.  These are Andrea and Sonia from the NEM group near me

  

• Line up and run!

  

And, if you’re me, run about 1/4 of a mile and exit stage left.  Remember when I blogged about my calf injury?  Turns out it was a Grade 2 muscle tear, meaning if I ran a long distance before completing my physical therapy exercises I would absolutely re-injure myself and be out of commission for the six weeks.  I can’t tell you how disappointed this made me.  But, as I was reminded, this race wasn’t about me setting a PR, it was about raising money for JJ.

So my husband ran it alone and he did a great job!  It was kind of fun being a spectator for a change.  These are the crowds at the start

and crossing the bridge.

Here’s Henri going strong near Mile 7.

He said it was tough seeing so many people run past him at first, but after awhile some of those same people ended up walking and he was able to pass them.  He was really nervous about running this race because he’s 54 and the last marathon we ran together was 10 years ago.

He finished strong at 2:38!  You could tell he kinda felt like a badass.

Since I was registered to run I had a wristband for beer.  But since I’m already starting my competition prep for my next bodybuilding competition Henri finished it for me.

Again, I’d like to thank anyone who donated to JJ.  If you haven’t yet done so, why not now?  DONATE NOW

Stay healthy,

Lisa 🙂

 

Lisa Traugott is a Mom’s Choice Award winning writer, fitness blogger, wife and mom of two….and Original Cast Member of AMERICAN GRIT, starring John Cena, on FOX!!!

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