Before we get into the actual race, let me fill you in on my history. I am currently 32, a mom of two boys Ty who is 4 and Reece who is 17 months. I have been married for 8 years to my amazing husband Dallen. Both my husband and I were collegiate athletes, I played water polo and he was a wrestler. In college we were exercising 30+ hours a week, then we became adults...with jobs. We tried to stay active, we bought road bikes and started riding and even completed a sprint triathlon. We completed a couple of 10k races together, in fact we ran a 10K when I was 10 weeks pregnant with our second son. Although we would complete in a race here and there we would train for 6 weeks, run and be done with it, we were not consistent. Going to the gym has also been part of our lives, but I tend to have a bad attitude about going, Our kids have to be in daycare and it is so germy and at one of the gyms the daycare is sub-par and I feel like when we leave Reece he is expected to fend for himself. As our family has grown our physical health has declined and I decided that we needed to change this and for us we needed a goal, which turned out to be the 1/2 marathon.
I suppose you can say I started training for the 1/2 back in September of last year. My neighbor, Nikki, set a goal to run a 1/2 marathon in February of 2012. So Nikki and I started walking (walking and running). Back in September of 2011 getting out at night to jog was my outlet, adjusting to two kids was difficult for me and I needed kid free time so at 8pm 3 nights a week I would head out with Nikki, enjoy the fresh air and enjoy not hearing some call for us every 5 minutes. Nikki and I ran the spooky sprint, which was a 5k, a Veteran's day race which was a 10k. Then I started to be a little less motivated and she was dedicated to her training. Nikki worked hard and not only finished her 1/2 marathon but finished it less than 2.5 hours. In my book she rocked it! I decided then that I could do this, I could train and run. So this summer I took the boys to the gym, hopped on the treadmill and ran. I quickly came to the conclusion that treadmill running sucked. Work started again in August (I work part time as a high school math teacher), and I decided that I would start running in the mornings, get it done and enjoy the rest of the day. I asked Nikki to join me, because after my first solo morning run in the dark, I realized that there is safety in numbers. Nikki joined me again and also brought in Cindy. I am so thankful for the two of them, we have been getting up twice a week (pending everyone was healthy) and running 3-4 miles. Cindy is the quick one and she has pushed me to be faster and today I was thankful for her quick pace. Our short runs have been great and dare I say enjoyable. Dallen and I did our long run together. We had to plan our long runs, because it wasn't just us our boys were along for the ride too. At first it was okay, Dallen pushed them and I was able to run, but eventually the lengths of our runs became too long for him to push 80+ pounds. We worked though it and would run to a nearby school set the boys up with snacks, toys, books and we would run the track. Slowly but surly we increased our mileage up to 10 miles, that was two weeks ago. We tapered and then it was race day.
To say I was nervous was an understatement. I was freaking out, I planned my running gear 2 weeks ahead of time, I worked on my playlist for hours. However this over preparation just made me more nervous, would we leave on time, would we have enough time to stretch, would we be able to find our starting corral. Dallen was able to calm my nerves by telling me that the race was going to start no matter what, we were going to start, run and no matter what we will finish. I realized he was right we were going to finish no matter what. This morning we woke up at 5am got dressed and left 10 minutes late, I was shocked we had no kids with us, yet we were still late. I became nervous once again. We pulled into the parking lot with 30 minutes to spare, the of course we had to wait 15 minutes to use the bathroom, nothing like waiting in line to use a port-a-potty. We found our corral, we put our ear buds in and I tried to calm my nerves. I reminded myself of these three things...
1. I would be happy if I didn't have to walk
2. I would be happier if we finished in two hours and 30 minutes
3. I would be thrilled if we could do a 10.30 mile pace
Then I reminded myself that no matter what we would finish and the race began. There I was with thousands of people all there to accomplish this huge task and a sense of calm came over me. When we finally crossed the starting line we were off and going at a fairly good pace, I didn't look at my watch to check our pace we were just going. The first two miles we were constantly trying to maneuver around the other runners. I looked down at my watch and we were pacing 9.20 miles. YIKES! We needed to slow down, was what my brain said, but I felt great we were doing so good. So we kept trucking on at the same pace. At mile 3 I realized we were going to have to run under a few roads, which meant we were going to have to run down a hill and then back up, in all I think there were 8 of them. In the beginning the were fine, in the end they were horrible. At 4 miles the elite marathon runners were coming back. It was impressive to see just how fast they were. Then at 4.5 miles I saw an elite marathon runner eat a stick of Vaseline, by mistake. I felt really bad for him, did he not know what was at the medical stations. I only hope it didn't affect his time too much. Running brought out the competitive nature in me, every time I passed someone who was in my age bracket or younger, I got a little excited. I also was beyond impressed with the men and women who have stayed active into theirs 60s and 70s and were running a 1/2 marathon some were even running the full marathon. There was an older woman who ran the entire race pushing a stroller, because she needed the stability. She by far was my favorite runner today. At mile 6 we stopped passing other racers and fell into our pace group. We would pull ahead of a couple of runners then fall behind then back ahead. This repeated until the finish line. At mile 7 my left hip started to hurt, at mile 8 I felt a blister starting to form on my right foot, mile 9 my right hips started to hurt. Really mile 9 and I was falling apart. I had to finish, I had to keep going. Finally the 12 mile marker was in site. We tried to pick up the pace, everyone around us was running faster, why were my legs not moving faster? Finally I saw the finish line, my legs started to move and my smile got bigger and bigger. We were almost there. Then we were done.
I slowed and then stopped to check my time on my watch and my legs locked up. Luckily my weight was forward and I managed to step and avoid falling. So we walked. We got our medal and sweatshirt and thankfully they had breakfast waiting for the finishers. We grabbed our eggs and headed out to the tables by the lake. We ate and enjoyed to sun and then we tried to get up. WOW! Ouch! After reteaching my legs how to move we went and had a brownie ice cream sundae. I think the ice cream sundae at the end of the race was the true reason why I chose this race to be my first race. Yes, an ice cream sundae at 9:30am and it was fabulous. We left to get our boys from their grandparents and that is when we both started to fall apart. Our legs were killing us, joints aching and our tummies were not too happy either. At home I couldn't wait for nap time. Usually I love nap time because I get to work on crafts, but today I wanted a nap myself. It was a glorious nap! When I got up I once again had to reteach my legs to move. I also thought my tummy would be better, nope not better. Now after both boys have gone to bed, Dallen and I are exhausted, our legs feel horrible and we are both fearful of what tomorrow will bring, but we did it! We really did it!
Our results...We did not walk at all! That made me happy. We did finish faster than 2.5 hours, that made me even happier. We even ran faster than 10:30 pace!!!! WE FINISHED IN 2 hours 7 minutes and 48 seconds!!! Our official pace was 9.46 mile. I had NO CLUE that I could run that fast a 10 minute mile was the fastest I thought I could run and I ran faster than that! AMAZING!!!
We did it! Trying to smile through the pain.
Can you see the blister? Ouch!
I do have another 1/2 marathon coming up in January. To be honest if I wasn't already signed up I may not have followed through with it, but I am sure once my legs are no longer sore and my joints are back to normal I will be ready to go. Secretly I am already trying to goal set for that race...maybe 2 hours and 5 minutes. :) I am officially taking the week off from running. I will be back at it next week, until then I am going to try to sleep in every morning until 6am!
