(Warning: Long post!)
Almost one month ago I completed my first 1/2 marathon! I say first because I really want there to be a second and third and so on...not sure I'll ever do a full...
I flew over to Seattle on Friday the 25th of June to meet up with my sister, Nicole and her best friend from high school (also Nicole) who flew down from Alaska for the race.
We took the Light Rail downtown, checked into the beautiful Sheraton Hotel (the same hotel I stayed at for my blogging weekend in March) and headed to the Expo.
I found a hand stamped silver pendant at the Expo that says "believe, achieve 13.1" as a momento of the experience. There were sooo many people. The thing that struck me the most was the diversity of people that were participating in the event. So many people didn't look like the typical runners or athletes. Which made me feel so much better since I don't really fit the mold either! Others seemed to agree....we had two gals (who did look like runners) ask us on the Light Rail if we were with Team In Training. They said they had a bet going that we were.....we didn't know whether to be offended or not! We embraced our first time experience though - all three of us were doing something we never thought we would do - out of the comfort zone we had all lived in most of our lives.
That evening Team In Training had an inspirational pasta feed dinner for all of us. The people involved in that organization are so committed and energized and passionate about the cause. So many of them have been personally affected by cancer and are driven to help others survive the experience. I feel really blessed to have gotten to work with all of them, to have received their coaching and support. I know I wouldn't have had the motivation on my own to complete the training and the race. Go Team!
Saturday morning we had to meet in the hotel lobby at 4:00 a.m. (gulp!) We were loading onto the buses by 4:30 and heading out into the city in the dark. Our bus driver got a little lost and we all snickered as we kept passing the same Hooters restaurant. We arrived at the start about 4:45 a.m. The race didn't start until 7:00 a.m. and our corral was 34 so we were waaay back! It was so cold that early in the morning and we huddled in our sweatshirts for as long as we could before we had to bravely peel them off to put in our gear bags. They had truck after truck lined up to collect gear bags. They drove them to the end of the race where you could pick them up. I was really impressed with the amount of porta potties they had at the start of the race. That was probably the worst part of the entire race day. I have never seen such lines before!
Here we are pre-race, still bundled in our sweatshirts. Wanting to drink water but not too much because that just meant another visit to the dreaded potties!
Another pre-race photo...in our jerseys. Everyone knew we were with Team In Training and throughout the race people on the sidelines would shout "Go Team" in encouragement and sometimes even encourage us by name as we had our names printed on the front of our jerseys.
There is the start! By the time our corral crossed the start line it was 7:57! We had been up since 3:30 that morning just anticipating this moment!
I ran with Nicole squared for about the first mile and then went out on my own. Originally I thought I would want to stick with people I knew through the entire race. I couldn't fathom running for 13.1 miles on my own. I ended up really enjoying being on my own. I set my own pace and did what I was capable of doing. I wanted to own my time and know that what I accomplished was all me and not someone else either pushing me or holding me back.
The course was gorgeous and the weather was perfect. Cool and a little cloudy. No rain and no blazing sun. Every time I passed a bathroom stop I considered it and every stop had lines of people. Every stop I told myself "the next stop". I never did end up stopping. It became really difficult when I hit mile 10. We had just come out of this long dark tunnel and we exited on the freeway looking out onto downtown Seattle. The end was so close, only three more miles and I could see the city and Quest Field where we ended. My legs were in so much pain at this point that I just prayed for God to give me the strength I needed. I downed another GU and kept going. Once we were in the downtown city streets it seemed to go on forever. We wound around and around and at that point I was approaching the 3 hour mark. I had never formally set a time I wanted to beat but I thought I would love to beat three hours. I had been doing a run/walk the entire race but I ran the end just trying to finish under three hours. I didn't realize how far out I still was though and ended up finishing at 3 hours five minutes and some seconds.
Here I am after I crossed the finish line. My brother in law was there snapping pictures and managed to just get this one. It's not terribly flattering but it's the only one I have...proof that I finished! Besides the pain in my legs I felt really good during the race. It wasn't until I was done and ate some food and sat down that I started to feel really crummy. We hung around the finish for awhile and visited with my BIL and niece and nephew. But we all felt like getting back to the hotel and to our beds as soon as possible!
The next few hours were pretty painful. We all took naps but our bodies stiffened up and were soo sore! We didn't think we would be able to make it to P.F. Chang's for dinner as we planned but we were so hungry! We were much better once we got up and started moving around.
That dinner was one of the best ever! We managed to get there in time for happy hour and even though I'm not much of a drinker I did enjoy the yummiest apple martini and mojito I've ever had. We rewarded ourselves that night! We had just accomplished a dream, we were in the city with zero of our combined eight children, were walking everywhere and had zero responsibilities! It was so fun! We were right next to The Cheesecake Factory as well so after dinner we went and each ordered a slice of cheesecake to go, went to our hotel, climbed in bed and ate cheesecake and watched a movie. I think we were turning out the lights by 9:30 that night!
Since we all went to bed so early we were awake early. We met Nicole's team at The Cheesecake Factory for breakfast and then headed to Pike Place Market to act like tourists. And the flowers, oh the flowers. I took picture after picture of them. So pretty and so affordable!
We hit Anthro and drooled over everything, shopped a few other stores and had an early dinner at yes, The Cheesecake Factory again. In our defense, it was really close to our hotel. We were so sad to check out our hotel, our room was beautiful and so comfortable...a real treat to stay there. I flew back later that evening to my sweet little family. Greg did such a good job that weekend taking care of the kids and letting me have a carefree weekend in the city. Thanks honey! And if you made it all the way through this loong post, thank you!
And terrible me...I realized after this had been posted that I never said a huge thank you to all of you that donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and helped me get to the race! THANK YOU, thank you, and thank you again for your generous support!
