On the Flip Side...

What an amazing experience!!

My alarm went off at 5:00 this morning.  I got up, showered, and attempted to get dressed.  After two tries at the sports bra (the first time it went on inside out) and realizing that there was a hole in my chosen socks, I was dressed, fed, and ready to go.  I headed out the door to my neighbor's house (thanks Heidi) since her dad was also doing the Half.  We left her house in the dark and arrived in DT Columbus in time to hit all the crazy cars that were there!  I was so thankful to have someone else driving who knew where to go and what to do.  Heidi took us up in her building so that we could use the restroom.  (After receiving a text from my friend Josh about how long the bathroom line was for the port-a-potty, I was very appreciative to have a real bathroom and to not have to wait in line.

Heidi's dad and I lined up in the "F" corral for our estimated start time.  It was such a neat experience to be surrounded by all sorts of people who had trained for this event.  There was even a couple of women in wedding dresses and bridesmaids outfits.  (We did hear the tale end of the wedding that actually TOOK PLACE just prior to the start of the marathon...how cool is that?!?!)  We hung out and kept warm.  I had purchased a jacket from the New Albany Classic booth at the expo to throw away but I kept in tied around my waist because it ended up being a little chillier than I was expecting.  The cannon fired (with fireworks!!) and we sort of headed off.  As you notice, the "F" corral is significantly further back than the "A" corral and we were near the back.  After a little under 10 minutes, we finally crossed the start line...and I crossed it jogging!!

Heidi's dad quickly outpaced me but I kept up jogging as far as I could keep up my breathing.  I slowed to a walk when I had a headphone issue and met up with Amy.  Amy was doing the half marathon to celebrate her 40th birthday!  That was such an inspiration to me!  She was also having headphone issues and we decided to be each other's buddies for the race.  Amy was a fabulous race buddy as we cheered and yelled and decided that pain didn't exist until after the finish line.  We thanked the race volunteers and cheered on the bands when they played good songs.  We jogged a bit of it even.

The walk down Broad Street was made especially cool as the hard core runners came flying by in the other direction starting at about the Mile 2 marker.  It was their Mile 7.  While some of the racers made it look effortless, others just made it look like they were in pain.  I don't ever want to be that person.  If I'm going to run the whole way on a half marathon (which has already been thrown out as a challenge for next year...thanks Josh!), I'm going to do it with a smile on my face and enjoy it!

As we neared Bexley, the views were just incredible...we lost a little time due to a bathroom break for Amy but still held our own against the field.  Mike and the girls were there to cheer me on around the 5 1/2 mile mark!  It was fabulous to have the girls yelling "Mommy!  Mommy!" and holding signs.

My glutes/hips started to hurt around Mile 7 but, as Amy and I had already decided, there was no pain until the race was done.  I cheered loudly for the volunteers from Columbus Running Company, my favorite running store!  They were right at about the 10K mark (we knew this one by the giant blue stripe across the street for the Tweetmytime thing.  As we rounded back through downtown and then through German Village, I started to look for my landmarks.  As good as Sbux looked, I wasn't stopping!!

Amy needed another potty break and while she was in the bathroom, the pace cop car came up right on our heels...talk about motivation!!  We jogged a little to get ahead of the police car and the rest of the field.  We kept it up and the last mile and a half was fabulous!  Once we hit High Street, we knew we were in the home stretch.  We crossed back over I-70 and caught sound of the Rocky Theme song...how awesome was that??  Even better....when that finished, Eye of the Tiger came on and we cheered!  We whooped and hollered our way through the end just to keep our minds off of the pain.  As we came up High, Mike had to practically yell to get my attention because I didn't see him!  But, there he and the girls were cheering me on!  And just a little before the finish line.

I rounded the way onto Nationwide Boulevard and was awestruck by the enormous crowd lining the last bit to the finish line.  The people were LINING UP on bleachers to cheer everyone on.  I told Amy that I was with her until the top of the small hill and then I was running.  And...run I did.  I ran the entire rest of the way to the finish line (almost a quarter mile)!  It was a little further than I thought but I'm so proud of myself that I both started and finished the race running!!!  Even Mike said that he couldn't keep up with me to get my picture at the finish line!  :)

At the finish line, I was rewarded with yells, screams, and A MEDAL!!!!  Then, we got yummy food goodie bags and it was awesome.  We met up again with Amy and made sure that we had our picture taken together.  I found Mike and the girls and we went through Celebration Village together.  It was incredible to see all the fabulous people who completed this amazing adventure.  So many priceless memories....and the best (aside from finishing) was when Samantha told me that SHE wanted to compete in a 5K.

In case anyone is interested in the technical stuff:
Official Time: 3:46.09
10K Split Time: 1:47.18
Place: 9803/9930
Gender Place (just females): 6089/6189
Age Group Place (females 30-34): 1066/1081

A serious thank you goes out to the people who have listened to me ask questions, complain, whine, doubt myself, and ultimately, been with me and supported me through this whole process: Mike, my girls, Josh F., Kyle, Josh S., Scooby, Pop-Up, Becky, Heidi, Bill, Tracy, Mom and DJ.


I crossed the finish line at 3:46.09 with a HUGE GRIN on my face.  If I can do this, I can DO ANYTHING.  (Next month....nanowrimo!)