What a great event and a great day for running! I was relieved to find that my foot didn't hurt as bad as I had been anticipating. I was also relieved that the leg cramps from the night before were gone and the bruised toe was not sore.
Official finish time...2:20:37! A little over 9 minutes faster then my goal!
As far as the event itself goes I thought they did a good job. All distances started on time, the course was fun, for the most part (I have mental issues with a 4 miles stretch of it, but that is my own issue not theirs), the aid stations were well staffed, it was easy to know who was handing out gel/water/gateraid/vaseline, all the volunteers were supper supportive cheering you along, and they did a good job of making sure you didn't have to re-run (out and back) very much of it. Only the part I have mental issues with. :(
The pacers were really friendly, and really good at checking to make sure you were ok. It was great, while it lasted. My pacer started out fast. We should have been running around 10:38 a mile and every time I checked my watch we were under 10 minutes a mile at one point were running under 9:30, which I knew was way too fast for the start. So at mile 2 I slowed it down and kept her in front of me, close enough to chase down when I wanted/needed to, but not trying to keep up too much. She stopped at the first aid station mile 4, I wasn't ready for water or stopping, so just kept on a going.
I didn't see her again until the turn around point, and she was way, way behind me. I liked knowing she was behind me because if I did need to slow down, her catching me was my fall-back plan. I would have just finished with her.
I felt really good, was doing a good job on my own of slowing up for the hills, quick turn over for the downhill, and taking water for myself at the stations, so didn't feel the need to hang with the pacer. I was loving the course, the weather, and how I was feeling so I just went with it.
Plus, Mark was there the entire time and he knew what short cuts to take to see me at different points (for the first half and then the last mile. There was a middle stretch I didn't get to see him at all) and take great pics, so I was having fun seeing him and posing while running. :)
I spent the first half yelling Thank You to every officer that was stopping traffic for us, thanking the people cheering, thanking the volunteers, waving at people watching us from their windows/balconies. I was just having fun, and making sure to take it all in. People probably thought I was a very annoying happy runner, but I don't care, I was having so much fun!
It was great until about mile 7 and then I hit the dreaded part of the course, and let me tell you it got to me big time. I just lose all will to run on this section of road. Plus I could feel the blisters (that's what I get for running in new inserts without testing them out fully, but they worked...my foot felt pretty darn good.) Both big toes are blistered, both arches have the 4 layer deep blisters and the tips of 3 toes are blistered. I could have stopped and gooped up, but I knew if I took my shoes off I could very easily not put them back on and be done, so I kept going. The first half of the dreaded section I kept cheering the leaders that were already on their way back to the finish line (Jodi's sister Amy being one of them - 5th lady overall! She is a pretty runner, makes it look really easy to run, and she had a big smile and wave for me which helped!) Then I started encouraging some of those that were struggling around me. One guy was having a hard time so I asked if we could run together, he thought I was helping him, but really I just needed someone to help me keep going.
It also got hot in that section so walked long enough to take my shirt off and tie it around my waist. I was not planning on running in that shirt, but was a cooler start than I though it would be, so had to layer. Anyway around mile 11 my legs were cramping bad and I was on the verge of a panic/crying jag and felt like I was going to be sick. I knew I was way ahead of schedule at this point, I had told Jodi I would hit mile 12 at 2:08, which was where she was going to be waiting to see me, but at mile 11.5 it was only 1:54 so I knew I had a lot of time to get that .5 done before I would be late. So I slowed it way, way down took water at the aid station and walked through there pretty dang slow. I just wanted to hang on until I saw Jodi. She walked me up the last hill, I was ready to crawl at this point and was so very thankful to have someone there telling me I could do it. I got up the hill around the corner saw Mark who said "You've got this" and cruised in for the finish.
I still had enough in my legs to sprint at the end, and was kind of ticked at the two people in front of me in the finish shoot, they took up all the space and I couldn't get around them. It would have only saved me a few seconds but still...I was not wanting to slow down. But they had 1/2, full marathon, and marathon relay finishers all crammed in so I understand why the narrow shoots.
Thank you to Mark for the thumbs up and pics along the way, to Jodi for being there at mile 11, to Amy for the encouragement when she passed me, to Elya for calling and texting me encouragement, and Michelle for the good luck pic from Sky this morning!
Since this post is already really, really long I will post pics and comments in a second post.
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