I know, I know, it has been a long while since I blogged. But really, it took me this long to recuperate from my 1/2 marathon. No, that's not really true but I figured some people would buy that excuse and the others would know it is just my laziness that prevents me from writing.
The marathon was intense. The night before myself, DDV and her hubby, and Clay and Kristel went to eat at Macaroni grill to carb up. Unfortunately, the other 40,000 racers had the same idea and we spent 2 hours waiting to sit down and 1 hour to get our food. I know we should have left after hour 1, but we were so pissed that we has wasted the hour and figured that every other place in town would be just as crowded so we stubbornly stayed. The food was bad and I probably will never go back to a Macaroni Grill in my life since the waiter told me that the reason our food was taking so long was because I ordered a 'create your own pasta' and that it was holding up the food line instead of realizing that it was because they were unprepared for that large of a crowd on a Friday night and were behind.
Race day was cccccooooolllllddd! It was 35 degrees outside. We were dropped off at
the start of the race by my sis in the dark at about 5:00 a.m.--DDV and I wanted to make sure we got to where we needed to be and on time, with this being our first race and all. The race began with a speech by the governor, Rick Perry in which he started of by saying "Gooooodddd mooooorning AAAAuuuuussstin-no, San Antonio!" What an idiot, he couldn't even get the city right in front of 40,000+ people. The race began at 7:45 and was a wave start. That means that the crowd was separated into corrals of 1000 people who would cross the starting line every 40-90 seconds. Me and DDV were at corral 29. We crossed the starting line at 8:45 and the race was on!The bands weren't all that great, but it was super fun running in front of the Alamo and seeing all the people that came out to cheer for us. There was a little girl singing the Taylor Swift song "Baby just say Yes" and we sang along and slapped the outstretched hands of the fans as we fell into our 2/3 pace.
Remember last weekend when I hiked at Enchanted Rock for nearly 13 miles!? Well, unfortunately I was wearing the same shoes for that as I was for the marathon and by mile 6 it was clear that I should have purchased new shoes two weeks prior to the race so that I could break them in because these shoes were 4 months old and had been seriously used. My foot felt like it was on fire. There were no blisters or anything like that, but it felt as though my middle toes were going numb and my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th metatarsals were grinding together in my left foot. I quit my 2/3 pace and let DDV go on ahead of me and continued to walk. At mile 10 I hit not only my physical wall, but more importantly my mental wall. I kept looking at the ambulances that were strategically placed along the race route and just thought of how easy it would be to just walk over, lay down in the stretcher, and ask to be driven to the finish line.
But then it happened, the motivation that I needed to kick my ass back into gear. An old, fat man began to pass me up. "Oh, hell no" is all I thought. I could not let this dude finish before I did. So for the rest of the race I was motivated by this overweight old man and my pride. I finished in 3:44, which was 44 more minutes than my goal, but considering I walked the last 7 miles I figure 15 minutes is not that far behind.
Sunday afternoon I hung out with my best gal friends Elizabeth and Jac (Jac also did the race) and sported my medal for everyone to see. I really am proud that I did the race and will continue with the running. I am planning to do a 4 miler in February--nothing as extreme as 13.1, but definitely a challenge for a notorious athletic slacker. Thanks again to all of those who supported me on my road to the Rock n Roll marathon, especially DDV and her hubby and mom and bruce--you guys rock! Wishing you the best year ever...Mel
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