My FIRST half marathon!
This post is long…..just warning ya
We drove over to Seattle Friday night.
I was running this with my friends Dyann and Alesha
We headed to get our packets around 9ish
The “expo” didn’t open until 11…we were 40 minutes early.
So we found a place to cop a squat and chatted for awhile
read: I tweeted while Dy and Alesha chatted
We finally get in to get our packets.
I was excited because I wanted to look around at the
“expo”
Boy howdy am I spoiled with Bloomsday
There were maybe 10 booths. So disappointing!
So we didn’t spend much time there.
We were going to be observing Dy’s hubby in the Warrior Dash later in the day SO DOING THAT! FUN TIMES!
Sunday morning: Race Day
I am not feeling nervous at ALL!
I choose between two outfits.
After seeing pics it was cute, but not becoming at all!
I ate a Chobani. Great for the stomach…not so great for enough fuel.
I always start feeling hungry around mile 7 Ha ‘always' because I have run that distance so often lol
I had been drinking water most of Saturday. I had leg cramps Friday night and that told me I wasn’t hydrated enough. My biggest concern about this race was the humidity. I paced my drinking on the way to Seattle with the intent to use the bathroom before and then hopefully be ok. If you have been reading much you know my bathroom issues.
Hubs made me a quick PBnJ and that got things moving down there so I was thinking this is going to be great if business doesn’t happen at mile 1.
Uh the bathroom lines.
This was my first clue that See Jane wasn’t very organized. This was a women’s race. There were 10 maybe 15 porta potties. We stood in line for 45 MINUTES in the park bathroom line and missed the start of the race. Our thought was what is the point of starting on time only to stand in line later. (after reading other race re-caps it bottle necked bad anyway so we didn’t miss anything)
While waiting in line I saw Tall Mom on the Run and Mom vs Marathon. I ran over and introduced myself….WAY out of my comfort zone….but was excited to meet them in real life after reading their blogs.
Finally get through the line and to the start of the race…uh 15 minutes after it started! My official time sadly reflects that so I guess that means September will be an easy PR I mean I better be able to beat 3:40 something for crying out loud!
I felt amazingly great! No pain ANYWHERE! I was keeping up ok with Dy and Alesha…but I had said if I can’t don’t wait. They had a chance to PR and I wasn’t going to hold them back. About mile 3ish??? I took a walk break. Then a potty break….that was enough for them to get far enough ahead I wasn’t going to try to catch up.
Mile 4-6 was good…walked when I needed to ran when I could. I GU’d at mile 3 and 6…realized I didn’t have enough…ooops…used one of the free GU’s at mile 9 I think it was. Then it started. Knee pain (mile 6ish)…and it was my RIGHT knee. What the heck!! My IT band was SCREAMING…and then there were a couple SUPER steep hills, short, but steep. I almost walked down backwards. One of the race officials asked if I wanted a ride? Uh nope I am gonna finish. I apparently looked like I was in pain….hmm…maybe it was the almost crying that cued her in.
See ALL ALONE!
Oh and as for porta potties at every water stop as I read somewhere…ya NOT…I didn’t find another stop until mile 7 I think it was…..honestly I can’t remember what mile it was…I was just focusing on finishing.
Mile 9! Uh an out and back PAST the finish line…so you know seeing other racers with their medals…oh and MY FAMILY!
I was starting to get a bit emotional. Saw my hubs and yelled
I WANT TO QUIT!
He said well you can! (looking back I know he was trying to help, but at the time it was NOT what I needed to hear)
He picked up on my expression because he then quickly said
YOU CAN DO IT!
Mile 10 they say Just a 5K to go…uh….ok
side note: I ran with a lady at this point that was crying. This wasn’t her first half, but she hadn’t trained well for this one. I ran and hugged her when she crossed the finish line…she was alone :( no hubs or family
not smiling
At this point I am really mostly walking…In fact I texted hubs at the point I started mostly walking…like
Here is what I wrote:
9:06 am with pic: 3.5 knees hurt, otherwise good
9:38 am: mile 5.7 knees tweaking bad.mostly walking.leg feels fine
10:05 am: both knees are toast. I am walking lots of pain
11:25: I mule (yes it said mule) to go
I remember how thankful I was that it was raining….I guess more pouring, but I was freaking out so concerned about the humidity and the rain was just what I needed. It was PERFECT running weather.
I remember how ANNOYED I was that I had to stop for cars to cross the road…the support for us bringing up the tail was sub par! The course wasn’t closed and we should have been protected. I was also annoyed that it wasn’t a closed course and I had to keep getting out of the way of bike riders.
I rounded the last bend and saw the finish line…and my kids. They ran across the finish line with me! That was the highlight. I didn’t get overly emotional because, to me, it felt like just another long run. I didn’t feel like I had finished a half marathon at all. Add to that the the 5K’rs got the same medals and shirts as us and my thought was heck I should have just done the 5K and then gone to the Bite of Seattle
I got my champagne glass half full of rain water with 3 pieces of chocolate at the bottom…gave those to the kids.
This wasn’t ANYTHING that I expected for my first half.
I did finish and that was my goal after my stress fracture. Which incidentally didn’t hurt one iota with the Kinesio Tape…pretty pink for Jamie of course!
