The Johnston Family: Mini Marathon

Last year Kara, Jenna, Laura and I decided to run the mini this May. It was GREAT to have a goal in mind when running all those days to train for it - definitely hard to quit training when you know you'll be running 13.1 miles with thousands of people in a matter of months. Well a few weeks before the race, we realized Laura's graduation date was the date of the mini, so she had to opt out, and THE DAY BEFORE we convinced Lisa to join us in Laura's place. Awesome, right? To run the mini without any training?!
So that morning we woke up freaking early, surprising hit zero traffic that morning, and drove downtown to wait in the 40 degree weather and 25 mph winds for over an hour before we actually got to cross the start line. There was about 35,000 people that run the mini with another chunk that run the 5k portion (which seemed very appealing as we crossed the 5k marker in our course!). Overall, it was really fun. Very hard, and the track was some kind of nightmare, but I would do it again.
I am happy to say I ran the first 10.5 miles without stopping (and not stopping at the water pits made for a soaked face and shirt and I tried to gulp it down without spilling) - but all that water leads to pit stops and this is where my mistake was made. I stopped to pee. Don't ever stop, people. Keep running. Take it from this guy it's just better to keep going. My legs turned to jelly and the pain set it. The final 3 miles I spent jogging at the pace of a walker and finished in 2.5 hrs.
Next mini is in the Fall - Kara, Jenna, and I are planning to run again - Lisa, we'll let you know the day before ;)

Adam came downtown with the girls but had a hard time getting to the finish line with the large stroller. We met up right afterwards - thankfully he brought blankets and sweatshirts for us all-we were FREEZING!