This week has been pretty hectic so I'm just now finally getting around to publishing this... I wrote it Tuesday evening, so it's a few days out-dated and quite frankly, I barely even remember what I wrote and don't particularly feel like editing. But not much has changed since then, so I'm not concerned about it. Enjoy!
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Is it really over??? OMG! It can’t be, can it? Three months of training and it’s all over already?!?!?
Major sadface.
As most of you probably have noticed by my Facebook posts, comments, etc., Race Day was pretty awesome! Sure, I had issues with my knee and it slowed me down. Sure, I hit the wall around Mile 9 and seriously didn’t know if I’d make it. Sure, it was tough, mentally and physically. But overall…
I LOVED IT!!!
And I’m actually quite excited to commit to another race and I’m (almost) as excited to start training for it!
Yes, a week or two ago I was sick of running. I was tired of knowing that 3-5 days a week I HAD to run, and I had no choice but to run 5, 7, 10 miles. But looking back on it all, I truly did enjoy the training, and for the training aspects that I didn’t like? It all paid off on Race Day.
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| The Crew |
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| So excited!! |
We started out at a 10-minute pace and maintained that until about half way. Unfortunately my left knee started hurting early on, probably around Mile 3, so I was struggling early in that aspect. At first it wasn’t so bad, and at times it either didn’t hurt at all, or perhaps I just forgot about the pain. But, for the most part, it was nagging me almost the entire race.
We stopped to pee a little after the halfway mark.
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| I actually LOOK like a runner here! |
Around Mile 9, I seriously thought I wouldn’t make it. Not because I was tired or because I felt unprepared, but because my knee was hurting me THAT badly. I walked through the next Cytomax/water station and a minute or two after b/c of the pain.
My memory is a little vague about the details after that. I’m pretty sure we ran the entire last 2 miles, but Suzanne would have to confirm that. I remember seeing the Mile 11 marker and telling myself, “Only 2 more miles. 20 more minutes! You got this!” (I was saying 20 minutes, even though I knew that my pace was no longer at 10 minutes. It made me feel like I was closer to the Finish Line than I actually was.)
Oh, side note! I met a Pi Phi from Mizzou along the way! Her shirt says, "Pick the Phinest." Hell yeah!
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| Cute & Popular! |
Between mile markers 11 and 12, I swore I was going to give up. Again, because my knee was KILLING me at this point, nothing else.
When Mile 12 was finally in sight, I was ecstatic! I remember a man congratulating me because he saw the back of my t-shirt. “You’ve got this girl! Congratulations! You’re doing great!” I turned back to him and said, “Thanks! You have NO idea how badly I needed to see that 12!” He had a few more words of encouragement, and I went along my painful-but-merry way.
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| Mile 12!! Thank God!! |
The last 1.1 miles were exactly like Beth told me they’d be… NEVER.ENDING. Every time I thought the Finish Line HAD to be in sight, it wasn’t. And when that Mile 13 marker popped into sight?? OooohhhhEeemmmmmGeeeeeee!!!! It was like a sign from the heavens! I grabbed Suzanne, hooked my arm through hers and said, “Ok, lets go!” So we zigzagged our way through the people in front of us and crossed the Finish Line arm-in-arm (haha!). WAAAHHHHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
Our official time was 2:36:58. All things considered, I’ll take it! And from what everyone keeps telling me, that’s actually a decent time for a first-timer. (I have no idea. I had no intention of finishing at any particular time, but since we finished under what our Corral’s estimated time was, I was ecstatic!)
After crossing the finish line, we grabbed water, warm bananas (that we threw out 5 seconds later), and a fruit cup. At the time, that fruit cup was SOOOO yummy! J We headed for the Family Reunion area to meet up with Tiffany & Kolby and Beth & Steve. The Nicholas was at the Marathon finish line waiting for Jacque (mad props to Jacque for running her first FULL marathon!!).
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| Pen Pals for Years. Friends for Life! |
I was intending to stay and hang out with Nick & Jacque for the Vertical Horizon concert, but since I caught most of their first set, and because I was starting to feel a little funny in my stomach, I opted to head home shortly after reuniting with them. Suzanne brought me a double order of Cracker Barrel’s macaroni and cheese (something neither one of us had eaten since we started training in October!) – YUM!!
After eating half of my mac and cheese and showering, I just chilled. I remember being super hungry after my 6-mile and 7-mile runs than I was on Sunday post-race, so I was really surprised that I wasn’t consuming everything in sight... Percy & I watched the Golden Globes then I indulged in a cocktail of Tylenol PM and ibuprofen (not a lot, people, relax!) and crawled into bed. I still owed a phone call, so I wound up chatting until about 10:30pm when I finally threw in the towel, hung up, and zonked out for the night.
Luckily I had off work Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Day. I woke up sore, but not nearly as bad as I thought I’d be. Since I have been toting around a gift card (good for a 1-hour massage at Massage Envy) since October 2009, I had planned ahead and scheduled a sports massage for 11am. When I requested my appointment, I had signed up for a 90-minute massage. When I got to Massage Envy, they had me slated for only 60 minutes. I was so sore and tired that I didn’t bother to argue it. The way I saw it, I didn’t have to spend any extra money. The gal at the front desk took me to the waiting room a little before 11am. My massage therapist didn’t come out for me for about 10 minutes. By the time she got started actually massaging me, it was nearly 11:20, and when she finished it wasn’t even 12pm yet. So, my question is this, people: When you schedule a 60-minute massage, is it unreasonable to expect to be physically touched for a full 60 minutes?? Because that’s precisely what I expected! Not that half of my appointment would be spent filling out paperwork, waiting on my MT to show up, and then having to listen to the sales pitch for their “membership”. So not cool. But again, I was so sleepy and sore that I didn’t argue. I just cut off the front desk girl when she tried to pitch me “on paper” and I walked out. Thanks, but no thanks. Next time I’ll spring for the $100 massage at an actual salon/spa, so long as it means there will be physical contact for a full 60 minutes.
I spent the rest of Monday laying on Suzanne’s bed crocheting and catching up on the 5-6 episodes of Grey’s that Suz had DVR’d for me over the past 2 months. (We don’t have a DVR in the living room so she records Grey’s for me and I catch up on it whenever she’s not home.) I went to bed around 9:30 and was asleep around 10:30 again.
It’s now Tuesday evening, and I’m feeling relatively good. My muscles are still sore, no doubt, but it’s really not all that bad. I certainly don’t plan on going out and running 13.1 miles again this week, but I do think that by Thursday or Friday I’ll be feeling up to a short, slow jog and hope to be on track next week to uphold my deal with Suzanne – that we’ll run 5 miles 2-3 times per week. I’ll probably still go for a long run on most weekends, and I’m excited to start hiking Camelback again.
Now that everything is over, here are a few things that I have learned/am more willing to acknowledge:
- You can do ANYTHING you put your MIND to… Including pushing through the physical pain/limitations.
- Set goals... Without them, you can never truly see how far you’ve come. I’ve never been much of a goal setter in my personal life, but after having accomplished this, I finally see just how important it really is to set goals.
- Believe in yourself… If you don’t, who will??
- … but don’t be afraid to rely on your friends in times of “need”… If it weren’t for Suzanne pushing me through the last 4 miles, I may not have made it. I owe her big time because she easily could have left me behind in order to finish with a better time. But she didn’t. She stuck by me, cheered me on, pushed me, and all but physically dragged me across that finish line.
I’ll probably come up with more over the next few days, but that’s all for now.
Oh, and since just about everyone has asked me if I’ll run another half-marathon… The answer is YES!!! Suzanne and I already plan on running the Vegas Rock ‘N Roll Half on December 4 and we will be running the Phoenix RNR again next January. By running both, we’ll receive the Desert Double Down medal… sweet! There’s a high possibility that I’ll run one between now and December, but we’ll see. It depends on the date, location, course, etc.We're looking at the San Diego RNR in June, then would probably take a break until Vegas in December. But we'll see!
STAY TUNED!!!
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