Yahoo! I did it (again)! I have been working hard to accomplish this goal. Up early and out in the cold most mornings, no sleeping in on Sat.(that's the long run day). This was one of the most fun and fulfilling days for me. I finished something and no one has gone behind me and undone it. We finished the 1/2 Marathon in 2:06 and that was our goal. I have done several other races (triathlons, 5K's, 10K's, splash n' dash, one other 1/2) but this one was the best. The other races I have done were on a much smaller scale they were fun but this race really gave me the fever. This was the AT&T Austin Marathon and Half Marathon. As far as Marathons go this one is on the smaller side (compared to Boston, New York) about 13,000 participants. Let me just start from the beginning:
4:45 wake-up put on race day outfit (I was hoping to get best dressed....J/K), collect all the important items timing chip, number, shoes, change of clothes, Gu's, IB profen, and you can not for get the lip gloss! 5:50 pickup running buddy Nicole and head for the race. 6:20 Get to downtown Austin find a place to park and finish getting ready. 6:25 It's at this point that we really have to go to the bathroom so we head for the starting area and start looking for the port a potties (I love race day accommodations). We find them with 35 min. till race time and wouldn't ya know the line was 40 min. long (just our luck, 12 pots for 13,000 nervous runner). 7:00am race start, well we had to go so we stayed in line. Your time doesn't start until you cross the starting line so we thought it better to stand in line before our time started ticking (there were lines at every port a potty for the full 31.1 miles). 7:08 start running to catch the crowd. Our couch, Bruce didn't have to "go" so he was at the starting line on time. We spent the first 6 or 7 miles trying to find him. We had to weave in and out of the people with slower paces then us and it made for a fun little game to pass the time. We finally found him and we had our little team together. It was short lived because Bruce was running the Full thing (you can tell by his better medal, better finisher shirt, and different color number) so the cut off came and Nicole and I headed for the finish line and Bruce still had 16.2 miles to go. We had planned to hammer out the last few miles until we looked up, only to see hill after hill after hill ( I don't mean incline I mean HILL) so our new goal was just to not walk the hills. But we still finished in the time we wanted to so we were happy. Every thing about being a participant in this was fun; bands playing at every mile, 30,000 spectators, having my name on my bib number, the free power aid, the finish (the best part), the finishers medals, the finisher's shirt, and the finishers food. So by the end of the race we had fully made up our mind that next race none of our race swag would be marked with Half. The other races I had done, there were not other racers doing more then I, maybe faster but not more, so I can't let that happen again. Now the count down is on to the Washington DC Marin Corp Marathon in Oct. I can't wait!!!!
-So I have some advice. If you have any intentions of doing a distance run do a big popular one. Every aspect of the race was amplified. In the past event shirts have become PJ's and medals go straight to the dress-up box. This time the shirts (2) I will be wearing for the next two weeks and the medal is far out of the kids reach (although they have tried).
The pictures are of Me and Nicole after the race and then with Bruce when he finished. I was trying to wait to post until I got all the pictures from the race back but I couldn't wait. So I will post the other pictures when I get them (during the race photos, that an outside company takes).
Okay everything is not all bright and cheery I still have 15 lb's to loose what a rip!!!!(and I am not saying that for attention I really have gained that much of late and the running did not take it off)
