Half Marathons and Child Birth

They say after child birth your body releases a hormone to make you forget the pain so that you'll be willing to have children again.  Both of my boys were born via c-section and the 13 hrs of labor I had with my oldest really wasn't that bad. BFF always says she compares things to child birth. She says I gave birth, I can do this, this is nothing compared to that.  With her Daughter there was no time for an epidural and she had this moment of Nope I can't do this, the baby is going to have to stay inside. She had to push thru that mental and emotional wall and push that little girl out.

I've never been in a situation where I haven't had an option to back out or choose the easy way and I always take it.   To me a c-section was the easy way and when the Dr. said it I was very willing to sign that paperwork.  Even as a child, in my parents attempt to protect me I was always given an way out of anything that scared me or was difficult. Anxiety runs in my family and so mine was nurtured, if anything made me feel uneasy or anxious I didn't have to do it.  I have never had a situation where I did something I thought wasn't possible and had to push thru and continue when I didn't want to.

Now I have Mile 10. At mile 10 I wanted to quit, sit curled up in a ball and just sob, there was no reason for me to continue, everything in my brain was telling me you can't do this, you've never done this. To the point that I had justified why I shouldn't keep going.  It took more than I had in me to keep going.  I was praying that God would just keep my legs moving and keep the vomit down. No one forced me to keep going, no one would blame me for quitting. If any of my family would have seen me at mile 10 they would have told me to just stop.  But I didn't stop, I push thru that mental and emotional wall and I didn't think it was possible. Even still I am surprised that I did it. I am sure the pain of childbirth is much worse than running a half marathon. But I find that the mental/emotional wall to be very similar, and then there is that hormone that is released that I talked about.........

I mentioned in my last post that the Tinker Bell Half Marathon was the hardest thing I've EVER done.  While it was a blast while in the park, I swore I would NEVER EVER do another half again!
Yet here I am less than a week out and I find myself thinking: it might have been not so horrible if I had stuck to training. Our Annual passes are good thru next years Tinker Bell Half and the 10K is so easy maybe the Pixie Dust Challenge wouldn't be too hard.  Maybe next year..... WAIT WHAT???? What is wrong with me?!?! I must be losing my mind!!