The summer before I was a freshman, my parents got a divorce and I moved with my mom to Rexburg, Idaho. I was mad about the move, mad about the divorce and knew nobody in the school. Somehow, Celeste and I became bestest of friends over the next year. Honestly I don't know how sometimes, we are pretty opposite. I tried to get her to play sports all of high school and she tried to get me on the speech and debate team. We had so much fun together, though, and always competed over grades. We were crazy and were roommates at Ricks College for a year, graduated at the same time, and when I got married she was my one and only bridesmaid. We never ran in high school, except to run away from some unsuspecting neighbors home after leaving cookies on their doorstep. (That ended badly a few times.)
Now we're all grown up with lots of boys to love (she has 3 and I have 4) and we're at the stage that they don't need us all the time. I think that's why I've started running more lately. In February, we had a crazy idea to run a 1/2 marathon, and when I say we, I mean she. Celeste lives in Arizona and is so happy to be there in the sun and heat, but she volunteered to fly up so we could run in Leavenworth at the Oktoberfest 1/2 marathon. My training was sporadic over the summer with all the boys home, but once they went back to school, I got serious about it, and I really loved it.
We went up to Wenatchee to stay the night before the race on Saturday. It is so beautiful in Leavenworth with the trees changing colors and the mountains in the background. It was freezing cold the morning of the race, but our adrenaline was pumping.
We both did so good. Celeste had never run over 6 miles before and she made it in under 3 hours. I was a little mad about my time because of the hills I didn't train well for and at mile 11 we ran in the sand for over a mile. My legs didn't want to lift up well by then and I was sure I was going to trip on my face, but luckily I didn't. My time was 2 hours 18 minutes.
We did it!
We did it!