Sweet mother of all that is holy it is over! That was the longest morning of my life! I don’t think I have ever been that nervous in all my life. So the night before I went to the expo to get my registration packet inside it had my bib number, the timing chip(you put it on your shoe and it gives you your race time) and all the other information I needed to know where I was going the next morning. I tried to sleep that night but I woke up ever hour on the hour. Yikes I was getting nervous.
Morning Time: Get up, put my clothes on, grab some energy gel for the run, skipped breakfast (I start my runs on an empty stomach) , and headed out the door. I showed up at the race 50 mins before, only to remember I forgot my timing chip. Seth and I raced back to the Hotel only to realize that the timing chip was in the car the whole time, so we raced back to the start line I had 20 mins to get in the ‘zone’. There were so many people there, 22,000 people to be exact. You could not really appreciate the amount of people there were until you started the race. When the race started it took me 15 mins to cross the start line and the start of the race was really hilly. So when I was on top of a hill I was able to look ahead of me and behind me and it was just a sea of people. It was really cool. The race started and let me give you a brake down of what happened.
Miles 1-3 Super easy there were a ton of people everywhere. The streets were packed with fans. We were in beautiful downtown, there were a lot of fun Blues and Rock bands there.
4-6 Still feeling good, I was running a good pace until I realize I had to go to the bathroom, waited in line for 5 minutes that was not fun. We were going down Belmont Street, which had some of the most beautiful homes I have ever seen. There were kids lining the street to give the runners high fives as they passed. So cute!
7-9 A lot of hills, my calf stated to cramp up and my knee started to hurt. Stretched them out and all is dandy.
10 – It was getting hot and boring we were out of the nice neighborhood and we were now we were in the industrial zone or something…it was pretty non eventful.
11-12 I spit in front of the crowd and get applauded for my spitting form. I didn’t think anyone would notice my spitting form; I have been practicing for so long. Then I found and older guy from Massachusetts to run with he kept me an a pretty good pace then I realized that the heel of my foot was stinging, I look down and the back of my shoe is covered in blood. Somehow I cut my heel open, it could have been a blister.
13.1 – Half way there, crap I still have 13.1 more miles to go. I felt very far from the finish.
14-17 Pretty uneventful…I just kept running. Oh so they have bands along the course and my whole theory was when I come to a country band I would run faster. Well they saved all the really country music till the end and it totally worked I would pick up my pace to get the heck out of there.
18 – 2 miles until twenty.
19 – Didn’t even see the sign, but by then I realize I could finish it before 5 hours, that was a secret time goal I had.
20 – Just one more hour left.
21 – Suck that was only a mile. Yikes.
22 – We entered a beautiful park full of trees and shade, so I just tricked my self into thinking I just started this run for fun and it’s going to be easy. It would have been more convincing if my legs did not feel like lead.
23 – By now everyone is walking. I didn’t want to get sucked into that, so I kept my head down and picked up my pace I had to get the finish line soon.
24 – 2 more miles left. While I passed the medical tent I looked inside and it looked like a scene from M*A*S*H.
25 - Oh Heavens I made it.
26 – Felt like a champion. I sprinted to the end.
I finished in 4:43:48.
I was so happy. It was a long race. But I felt good the entire time I had energy to run the whole thing. Luckily I did not need to walk.
It’s over It’s over and It’s over!!! Met Seth at the finish line and then I hobbled to the car. My legs are still broken I can barley walk, but I am really happy that I accomplished something I started to do out of spite. That’s it for me. Now it is all about the bike. Truth be told you know I am going to run another one. It’s kind of addicting. My sister is talking me into one in October. I might not be ready for that one, but we’ll see.
I'll post pictures when I figure out how. Check back later.
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