Feet numbing, muscles cramping, sweat dripping, still with five more miles to go. Why did I do this to myself again? Probably because I’m half-crazy to run the Baltimore Half-Marathon.

On Saturday, Oct. 15, I ran my first half-marathon and had no idea whether I would make it out alive or not. Prior to the race, I followed a half-marathon training schedule that I found on www.shape.com. The schedule had me increasing my mileage and duration of aerobic exercise progressively every week. Trying to faithfully follow the schedule for the past four months was no easy task, and many times I asked myself why I had decided to enter the race.

It was just one of those things where I said “Oh, I want to try that someday,” and it turned out that someday was much sooner than I thought. This was the best time for me to enter a half-marathon because, once college comes around, I won’t have the time or energy to do it.

I’m incredibly happy to say that all of my training paid off big time. Not only was I able to run the race with an average of nine minutes and 40 seconds per mile, finishing in 2:06:10, but I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought I would dread race day, but instead I had butterflies of excitement.

I was one of 25,000 runners running that day in Baltimore. Once the race finally began, I felt as though I was surrounded by tons of runners that were just as crazy as I was, which is a comradeship that you don’t find every day.

The support of bystanders throughout the city was an unexpected friendly and rewarding aspect of the race. Some of my favorite signs that bystanders held while they cheered read “Like you’re having a baby, keep pushin’!” and “Your feet hurt because you’re kicking so much a**!” which kept me laughing as I ran.

While I didn’t get to burst through a ribbon at the finish like an Olympic runner, it still felt amazing to cross the finish line. I told my patient mother waiting at the finish that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I even mused that maybe someday I’ll run a full marathon. However, this time I’ll wait a little longer for someday.

Stephanie Meadowcroft is a Lifestyles Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.