"Of course it's hard.
It's supposed to be hard.
If it were easy,
everybody would do it.
Hard is what makes it great."
--A League of Their Own
The race.
Want to know the greatest source of anxiety that I had ahead of the race? Where am I going to park when I get there?
Seriously.
I was completely worried about it! Thankfully, my sister knew someone who runs it every year, and she offered to drive me there and be my source of reason. She's also a psychologist. Some therapy was in order on the way down. I don't think I talked too, too much. :)
I was staying with my sister the night before the race since her house is closer than mine. I never go to bed early, but I was exhausted from the long day of preparing. I went to bed early around 9:30ish. I was supposed to wake up the following morning around 5:00, but I woke up around 4:30 and knew I wouldn't go back to sleep. I got around easily and headed out the door.
Once we arrived, I realized that I had brought the wrong bag to store my things. For those of you who don't know, there are nice people that will hold your things for you while you run your race. Unfortunately, they had given us TWO bags in our packet. I debated and debated about which one to pack...I thought about taking both, and for some crazy reason, I didn't throw the other one in my bag. (Seriously, how much space would it have taken?? What's wrong with me?!) They could have at least told us which color to use. Although, it seemed as though everyone around me had chosen the correct color. Thankfully there were some extras near the drop-off area for the newbies who didn't know which bag was correct. :)
I didn't know what to expect when I got there. I always have to go to the bathroom 527 times before I run, so I was happy to see a line of 3,000 port-a-potties in a row.
On a side note, the funniest thing about the port-a-potties was that there were lines of people at the first 5 port-a-potties, and no lines of people at the other 2,995 port-a-potties. My first thought was this: these people can run 13.1 miles in this race, but they can't walk 20 yards to find an empty port-a-potty? My second thought was along the lines of...the more people that use a port-a-potty, the grosser it is. It was really a win-win to walk the extra few paces.
Anyway, so I found my corral, and I ate my banana (which I left on the ground outside the port-a-potty...it's sad when you feel like the sidewalk is a clean place to set your food), and I tried to act like the other runners around me...so I did some stretches, but I refused to do the warm-up jog like some people...that's just pure craziness...I wasn't going to waste any of my steps on the warm-up...I had 13.1 miles to go! I listened to the slow songs on my ipod to keep me calm. I said a lot of prayers.
Then, the race began.
From our corral to the start line was a bit of a walk, and people were running before we even got the start line. But not me...or the guy next to me. He looked at me and said, "We haven't crossed the start line yet, have we?!" I said, "Nope...it's up there!" Him: "Why is everyone running?!! I only want to run 13.1!" Me too...we stayed strong until we got to the start line.
Then, I ran. I ran for 2 hours, 10 minutes, and 50 seconds. Straight.
The first 8 miles were were great. The next couple were okay. The last 3 were pretty rough.
I had loaded over two hours of music on my ipod, and I listened to a lot of it during my run. During the first several miles, I could have listened to just about anything. The last few miles? I needed some major motivation. I listened to Mandisa's "Overcomer" over and over and over during those last few miles.
I knew that I wouldn't walk. That was my main goal from the beginning, but goodness did I want to stop running! I think mile marker 11-12 was the hardest. I knew I still had two miles left, and I knew that once I saw the 12 that I only had one mile remaining. It seemed like forever until I saw the 12!!
And then I got to 12, and I couldn't see the finish line. Where was that thing?? Through the entire race, there were people all around me running. It seemed like there were a ton of people close together after mile 10 or 11...more than before. And then, all of a sudden during my last mile, there was a big space between me and the people in front of me. It was only for a minute or so, but it was a weird feeling!
Crossing the finish line was such a great feeling. When I ran my 10K a couple of years ago, I thought I was going to puke...I was dry heaving near the mascot at the finish line. Thankfully, I didn't puke on him. And I didn't feel like that at all at the end of this race. My legs felt weird, and I could tell already that my calves were going to be majorly sore in the very near future!
I picked up my medal, snacks, water, and the like. (The cookies were not impressive...I'm such a cookie snob.) And I went to pick up my bag of stored items to find my phone to call Josh. I literally hobbled up and down the curbs of the sidewalk to get my bag. Those calves would hurt for days!
As soon as I had my phone in my hand to call Josh, I started getting emotional. He picked up the phone and asked how my race was. I couldn't even answer. I was bawling. I just couldn't believe that I had actually just ran a HALF MARATHON...thirteen point freaking one miles!
How in the world did I do that?!
When I crossed the finish line, I was eager to know my time. I knew I had run about 10 minute miles through the race because there were clocks at every mile. What I didn't know was the time on the initial clock when I started. Josh was receiving text updates each time I would pass one of their checkpoints, so he told me that he would text me right after the race with my final time. But, he didn't know. The last text hadn't come through when I crossed the finish line.
I was almost in a panic that it didn't record my time. Josh assured me that they would know my time. I found my sister, and while we were on our way to breakfast, Josh called me with my official time. My goal was to run about 10 minute miles, and I averaged just under that. So fabulous.
Jill and I went to breakfast where I hobbled in and out of the restaurant, in and out of the bathroom, to and fro the car. The worst part was that I drove our little crap car, and it's a stick. Who didn't think of that ahead of time?! My poor legs.
Anyway, while I was running the race, I was thinking that this was definitely the only half marathon I would ever run. Then, later that day (and many times since), I decided that I would certainly put it on my list of things to do again in the future. :)
My calves were extremely sore that day. They were worse the next. It took me a good 3 minutes of walking on Sunday each time I stood before I didn't look like I was shuffling. My calves were sore each morning until Friday.
This race/run will rank extremely high on my list of great accomplishments for quite some time.
In the words of C.S. Lewis, "You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream."
You know all those things you've been wanting to do? You should go do them!
