For You Dad

Dad's been asking me about my race last Saturday and since the details won't post on my blog for a few weeks (since I'm catching up) I thought I would post a summary here, just for Dad.

Last Saturday Adam and I ran in the Halloween Half Marathon.  It started at Aspen Grove, went down past Sundance, followed the highway to Vivian Park then followed the Prove River trail to the Riverwoods mall.  It was a total descent of 2200 feet most of that being in the first 4.5 miles.

I've been training for the race with these girls, my friend Kelly, her sister in law Tricia, and her neighbor Kim.

The morning of the race my neighbor Kristin picked me up at 5:00 am.  We drove to the University mall where we got on a bus that took us to the race start.  We got up to Aspen Grove at 6 am.  They were supposed to have a heated tent where we could all hang out until the race started but when we got off the bus it was dark and there was no one to show us where to go.  It was below freezing.  The crowd eventually made it's way along a dark path that did indeed lead to a tent but it was not very warm.  My friend and I huddled in her blanket until a few more thousand people showed up and the tent got warm.

There were about 4,000 people total that ran in the race.  They had two groups, one started at 9:00 am and the slower group started at 9:20 am.  We were in the 9:20 group.  The first 4.5 miles flew by.  I could tell it was hard on my legs but we were going so fast and I felt pretty good so I didn't worry about it.  The next 8 some miles were pretty brutal but I managed to run the whole thing without stopping.  I had my Gu and my water while I kept running.  I stopped to walk once but some lady asked me to keep going because she was following me.  That was just the motivation I needed.  I got pretty tired after mile 11 and around mile 12 Ryan called and asked if I was about 5 min. away.  I almost lost it and started crying but I managed to squeak out that I was maybe 15 min. away.  As I was coming around the last turn and saw Ryan and the kids I felt like all the tears I was holding back would come bursting forth.  That was the longest part of the whole race.  There were so many people crowding the finish line and I just wanted it to be over.

When I finally made it across my legs felt like jello.  I was afraid to even walk because I thought I would collapse.  And I was starving!  I grabbed a handful of oranges and then I saw the kids and my sister in law Joy (who also ran the race) and I lost it.  She hugged me while I cried and cried.

My friends came in about 5 min. after I did.  They have a tendency to stop for water breaks and I was afraid if I stopped I would never get going again.  I kept thinking they would catch up to me because they're pretty fast but they never did.

The strangest part was that I kept looking for Adam at the finish line.  He and I ran together for the first mile and then he took off.  He looked like he was feeling great and I thought for sure he was going to finish way before me.  When he came limping up after the race I was really worried but it turned out he just had sore muscles like I did.  I guess he got stuck at the bathroom.  It was fun having him there, though, and even better to have someone to commiserate with on Sunday when I felt like I couldn't walk.

It was a pretty cool race and especially fun to see all the funny costumes people ran in.  I finished with a time of 2:21.