Sunday, December 18, 2011

The Finish Line!

In the busyness of the holiday season (and my own slothfulness), I haven't taken the time to post about how my RUN went. So now, for your reading pleasure...

There is a LOT of advice that is given to marathoners (and measly half-marathoners like me) about how to prepare for a long run. While methodology varies from runner to runner, some things are universal, particularly getting enough rest and eating a lot of carbs the few days before the race. I failed on both counts. 

You see, the problem was that Eric was on night shift the whole week (and night) before my run. Unfortunately, I still do NOT sleep well when Eric is gone. I almost always end up staying up a good hour later than I should, I wake up in the middle of the night, and then of course I wake up when he actually comes in at 5:30 or 6. I probably totaled 5 hours per night the whole week before the race.  

Likewise, I also found myself eating solo all week, and for some reason I wanted to use that opportunity to eat things Eric doesn't like. On any normal week, I have to seriously fight to pull myself away from the cereal and Wheat Thins. The one week I SHOULD have been eating those things, I was eating soup and chili (with beans) instead. Not my smartest move ever. 

So, as you can see, my pre-race prep was kind of a bust. But, no worries, because I still FINISHED and I RAN the whole stinkin' way. 

Of course I was crazy nervous and got up at 6 the morning of the race. I stretched and ate a pop tart and then made myself lay down for 20 more minutes. I got to the YMCA way earlier than I should have and waited around for forever.  After 12 weeks and over 225 miles of training, I was sooo ready to get this thing going! 

I started off super slow, but picked up my pace a bit around mile 5 (when the guy who finished first passed me on his way back already at mile 10!) and started passing people one by one. That was probably the most fun part. I would just choose a person and focus on passing them next. It's a pretty great feeling to pass someone and not look back. 

 I felt really good until about mile 11, when suddenly the HURT kicked in. I guess my legs decided they didn't like moving that much any more.To make matters worse, they RAN OUT OF WATER at the last water stop. That's right. NO WATER. My plan all through the race was to run like crazy no matter how much it hurt after the last water break, because I KNEW that water would give me the energy I needed to finish strong. But as I had my last few sips of water at mile 8.5, I was so parched that it took everything I had just to keep moving. Still, I never quit running. I was slow slow slow, and my muscles hurt more than I thought possible, but I kept at it. And I just kept thinking "how in the world do people run twice this far?!?" 

And, finally, parched and legs burning, I rounded the last corner to see my sweet husband smiling at me. He'd gotten up after 2 hours sleep just to come watch me finish. And it meant the world to me. :-) Of course, I wasn't physically able to tell him that until after I'd downed a bottle of water and some Gatorade... 

So that's one more thing I can check off my bucket list. I am officially a half-marathoner (I got my 13.1 sticker and everything). And I am still amazed at how many people showed up to run 13 miles. 13! I've worked really hard over the last couple of years to get to this point. But do you know that more than 1100 other people showed up to run that far? And with a time of 2:14:01 (that's an average of 10:13 per mile), I finished as number 800 and something. That tells me I have a LONG way to go!! But hopefully the next one will be that much easier.

 I've run a few (short) runs over the last two weeks and officially crossed the 750 mile mark for the year (yikes!). I've accomplished more fitness wise this year than I ever would have dreamed, and while it may not seem like much, it feels great to close out the year knowing I really challenged myself and finished strong. I can't wait to see what next year brings! 

2011 Stats
Fastest mile: 6:52 (okay, it was all downhill, but still!)
Fastest 2 mile: 15:34
Longest run: 13.5 miles
St. Leo 5K (March): 26:56
Ardmore 5K (October): 25:56
Mistletoe 1/2 Marathon (December): 2:14:01
And as of 12/18/11: 755 miles this year!