We were paranoid we weren’t going to wake up on time… so we each set our alarms on our phone AND we set the alarm on the clock radio in our hotel room… at 4:15 on the dot we jumped up from sound sleep to the chaos and noise of 3 separate alarms going off in unison… I wish there was a camera in the room videotaping us in our immediate excitement as we hopped around the room shutting off alarms and scooping up our piles of running clothes and getting ready to head out.
Luckily we prepped as much as we could the night before… affixing our disposable running chips to our shoes, and laying out our numbers with safety pins… the two items (aside from your actual running shoes) that were absolutely necessary for the race.
Amongst the shuffle we managed to stuff our faces with peanut butter smeared on whole grain bread and a couple bananas… it is the pre race breakfast of champions you know… and we were going to own every aspect of this race!
We grabbed up our energy chews, water and drop bags and made our way to the lobby. It was already bustling with runners.. grabbing up free breakfast.. sipping on coffee and water chatting it up and acting like today was like any other day... we found our way outside to the long line of busses ready to take us to the start line.. we finally found the half marathon bus and shuffled aboard and took the first 2 empty seats we could find meanwhile laughing and joking about the army and how you never picked your seat you just shuffled to the back and filled in with a calculated organized manner.
I chatted with my seat mate while eavesdropping on several conversations as I scanned the buss to observe my fellow half marathoners… not that I was paranoid or trying to scope out the competition.. its just runners are a interesting group of people…they don’t fit one prototype.. you can’t people watch at an airport and say “oh that guy is definitely a runner”. Some of us are short, some are tall, some are thing and some of us are big boned… they have names for us… Athena’s and Clydesdales…Athena is a female runner that is over a specified weight… for the Tucson Marathon it was 160, for men (Clydesdales) they have two classes one over 180 and one over 220… they even have awards for the top three finishers in each category… it’s a way for us to still feel like we have a chance to win something.. because a 191lbs runner like myself is no match for one of those 125lb lean thin runners you see in the Olympics...
Anyway after a bit we arrived at the destination…we debussed only to find that in North Tucson aka Oro Valley the weather was a bit colder at 530 am!! Luckily they had heat lamps and we huddled with the masses absorbing body heat as long as we could… finally the clock ticked 630 and we made our way to the drop busses… we had to strip down into our running skirts (something we both thought was super cool and had to invest in for the race.. hey if you don’t look cute why do it??) and shirts and checked our bags with our excess clothing on the buss to be picked up at the finish line.
I would have been a bit frosty in the 40 degree weather in my running skirt and tank top if I wasn’t so completely excited (and nervous) about the 13.1 mile trek that was fast approaching…as we shuffled over to the start line we kept pumping each other up.. “this is going to be so awesome” “I can’t believe we are about to run a half marathon” “this is crazy” etc etc…
Alas a lady comes on to the mic.. “all runners with a 5-6 minute mile pace or better come to the starting corral” as many of us giggled at the thought of running 13.1 miles at that pace we were able to move up closer to the starting corral.. since they were only regulating who started first we decided we wanted to get as close to the front as possible…2heats later we found ourselves at the start line. My heart was beating in my chest as I looked to the road in front of me… before I knew it I heard “mark” “set” “GO!!” and though I had been telling myself I need to make sure I start off at a moderate pace I felt myself shoot out of the corral… I felt amazing.. untouchable… unstoppable… until a group of girls running with a garmin stated they were running at a 10 minute pace… YIKES I knew keeping up a 10 minute mile pace for 13.1 miles was probably not a doable goal for me… so I turned to jen and asked her how she felt about the pace.. to fast I said??? She said no its fine.. if we keep this up we should be good! In my mind I was thinking oh man not sure if I can keep this pace up but knowing that a big part of running is mental I pushed it out of my head and pushed forward…as we turned on to route 77 the sun was coming up and we could see the pinks purples and browns in the desert sky bouncing off the mountains… if running wasn’t taking my breath away the sky certainly was and I used the landscape to find some sort of zen as I kept my feet moving toward the finish. The first 3 miles were a bit of a blur.. all I know is they went by fast… it seemed every 5 minutes I was hitting another mile marker and high fiving jen (we high fived each mile marker as a way to commemorate the small victories along the way) finally after mile 4 I realized I must have slowed down a bit because the mile markers seemed to be spaced out a bit more…but we kept up a good conversation as we went along, giggling at the runners that follow Jeff Galloway’s method of “running” and follow a specific run to walk ratio… I mean even if you do PR (get a personal record) you can’t say you “ran” a pr…. Right??? Who knows… we were just brainwashed by the army… and in the army running is running.. walk is not apart of the equation.. actually if you DO walk you are considered a dirt bag… and you are heckled and mocked until you start running again. This is us hamming it up at about mile 4~
Alas a lady comes on to the mic.. “all runners with a 5-6 minute mile pace or better come to the starting corral” as many of us giggled at the thought of running 13.1 miles at that pace we were able to move up closer to the starting corral.. since they were only regulating who started first we decided we wanted to get as close to the front as possible…2heats later we found ourselves at the start line. My heart was beating in my chest as I looked to the road in front of me… before I knew it I heard “mark” “set” “GO!!” and though I had been telling myself I need to make sure I start off at a moderate pace I felt myself shoot out of the corral… I felt amazing.. untouchable… unstoppable… until a group of girls running with a garmin stated they were running at a 10 minute pace… YIKES I knew keeping up a 10 minute mile pace for 13.1 miles was probably not a doable goal for me… so I turned to jen and asked her how she felt about the pace.. to fast I said??? She said no its fine.. if we keep this up we should be good! In my mind I was thinking oh man not sure if I can keep this pace up but knowing that a big part of running is mental I pushed it out of my head and pushed forward…as we turned on to route 77 the sun was coming up and we could see the pinks purples and browns in the desert sky bouncing off the mountains… if running wasn’t taking my breath away the sky certainly was and I used the landscape to find some sort of zen as I kept my feet moving toward the finish. The first 3 miles were a bit of a blur.. all I know is they went by fast… it seemed every 5 minutes I was hitting another mile marker and high fiving jen (we high fived each mile marker as a way to commemorate the small victories along the way) finally after mile 4 I realized I must have slowed down a bit because the mile markers seemed to be spaced out a bit more…but we kept up a good conversation as we went along, giggling at the runners that follow Jeff Galloway’s method of “running” and follow a specific run to walk ratio… I mean even if you do PR (get a personal record) you can’t say you “ran” a pr…. Right??? Who knows… we were just brainwashed by the army… and in the army running is running.. walk is not apart of the equation.. actually if you DO walk you are considered a dirt bag… and you are heckled and mocked until you start running again. This is us hamming it up at about mile 4~
Regardless we just kept going… at mile 6 we dug out our powerade gel bites to replenish the energy we had expended the last 6 miles… that is another reason why I love running… what other sports do you know of that actually ENCOURAGE eating WHILE you do it?!
Mile 7 came and went…then mile 8… we couldn’t believe how fast this run was going… it goes to show how much adrenalin can really carry you when you need it… each time we saw a person from marathonfoto we cheesed it up.. cheered as loud as we could… put our hands in the air like we just didn’t’ care…. A couple pics even captured smiles and laughs from runners behind us as we pumped ourselves up…hey you have to do what you have to do right?
I have to say Jen is one of the most motivating people I know… besides the high fives at every mile… and her high fiving every sheriff and police officer holding traffic… each time there was a spectator just standing there looking for “their” runner SHE started cheering and clapping… getting them to start cheering for the rest of us runners that were out there.. she said ha they aren’t going to just stand there and ignore the rest of us! What’s that??!! Remembering her energy along that run still makes me laugh out loud to myself even as I’m writing this… I need to make a pocket sized version of her that talks.. so every runner can have the kind of energy she inspires! Like here for example.. at mile 9~
Finally we hit the 10 mile marker… at this point you only have a 5k left… so it’s all downhill from there right?? Well the whole course was down hill… until we got to the 12th mile.. after we hit the 11th mile marker we turned a corner…. to a HUGE hill… well maybe it wasn’t that huge… but after 11 miles of running it LOOKED huge… so I put my head down… dug deep… expanded my stride and fought to stay right behind jen as she turned up her turbo… finally we made it phew…and then my ipod died DAMN!!! Why didn’t I charge it??? I was thinking to myself how evil it was to throw a hill in so late in the race especially with no ipod to keep you going when I started hearing a deep drum beat.. BOOM…. BOOM… BOOMBOOMBOOM… I looked up and at the base of yet ANOTHER steep hill was a huge group of drummers with the biggest set of congas I have ever seen!!! They were playing what seemed to be a type of Native American Tribal music… it had a strong beat… and had a peaceful yet empowering rhythm… I put my head down yet again… dug down deep in my soul yet again… lengthened my stride (yet again) and pushed it to the top of the hill
Phew we turned another corner after that one… I was noticeably looking for the mile 12 marker after that… I was ready for the race to be over… those hills really gave me a run for my money…luckily soon after we hit the mile 12 marker… that was the happiest I was to see a mile marker the whole race… I knew that with only 1.1 miles left I could conquer this thing.. I could already feel the soreness in my legs.. but I kept going… a girl with a pink sweatshirt passed us yet again…(we had been playing tag) I thought to myself uh I hate that stupid pink sweatshirt!! I’m so sick of seeing it!! Yet I couldn’t seem to find it in myself to turn up the volume and finish strong.. I knew I COULD but because of a mental mind block I have unless I came to the 13 mile marker OR could see the finish I wasn’t going to be able to punch it… Jen started feeling it… I told her do it.. punch it get to that damn finish line…I’ll be there soon! Lol as she started to take off I could see the huge crowd of people… and the cones started getting narrower…another girl I had been playing tag with me passed me.. and Jen started to get further and further away from me and I decided F-It… those bi*&hes were going DOWN!!! I found some sort of heart left in my chest and started picking up the pace… the two girls were neck and neck in the narrow shoulder so I yelled “MIDDLE” and leapt thru the tiny space there was between them… I yelled my apology as I know darting thru the middle isn’t proper running etiquette.. BUT there was no room and I wasn’t about to be DQ’d for stepping outside the cones!! Someone yelled “finish is around the bend!!” so I cranked it up even more.. I was pumping my arms so fast I must have looked like a cartoon.. you know when the roadrunner’s legs start twirling in a circle while its body just kind of stands still.. that’s what I felt like…but I didn’t care… arm momentum leg momentum I didn’t care I was going to get to that finish line!! I looked up and the clock said 2:21… then shock set in… and my legs went even faster… and I managed to cross the finish line just behind jen… I almost fell over as a kid handed me my finishing medal.. I think I might have even had tears in my eye…Jen and I said forget the fricken high five and hugged the sh!t out of each other as the silly marathonfoto people kept saying “over here over here!!! Marathon photo!!” hey couldn’t’ you see we were having a moment???!!!! We took our finishing photo and wandered around to the food tent.. I think the way I felt after crossing the line is the poster feeling for runners high… I was in a complete and utter daze.. everything was hazy and I felt like I was floating...(runners high might be interrelated to moderate to severe dehydration but that is just speculation) We somehow made it to the bus and back to our hotel… after we showered and got dressed we somehow managed to find a red lobster where we relished in our victory while sipping mimosas and chowing down!
We both decided that a half marathon really wasn’t that bad… and decided we were without a doubt going to start training for the full Tucson marathon next year….
Mile 7 came and went…then mile 8… we couldn’t believe how fast this run was going… it goes to show how much adrenalin can really carry you when you need it… each time we saw a person from marathonfoto we cheesed it up.. cheered as loud as we could… put our hands in the air like we just didn’t’ care…. A couple pics even captured smiles and laughs from runners behind us as we pumped ourselves up…hey you have to do what you have to do right?
I have to say Jen is one of the most motivating people I know… besides the high fives at every mile… and her high fiving every sheriff and police officer holding traffic… each time there was a spectator just standing there looking for “their” runner SHE started cheering and clapping… getting them to start cheering for the rest of us runners that were out there.. she said ha they aren’t going to just stand there and ignore the rest of us! What’s that??!! Remembering her energy along that run still makes me laugh out loud to myself even as I’m writing this… I need to make a pocket sized version of her that talks.. so every runner can have the kind of energy she inspires! Like here for example.. at mile 9~
Finally we hit the 10 mile marker… at this point you only have a 5k left… so it’s all downhill from there right?? Well the whole course was down hill… until we got to the 12th mile.. after we hit the 11th mile marker we turned a corner…. to a HUGE hill… well maybe it wasn’t that huge… but after 11 miles of running it LOOKED huge… so I put my head down… dug deep… expanded my stride and fought to stay right behind jen as she turned up her turbo… finally we made it phew…and then my ipod died DAMN!!! Why didn’t I charge it??? I was thinking to myself how evil it was to throw a hill in so late in the race especially with no ipod to keep you going when I started hearing a deep drum beat.. BOOM…. BOOM… BOOMBOOMBOOM… I looked up and at the base of yet ANOTHER steep hill was a huge group of drummers with the biggest set of congas I have ever seen!!! They were playing what seemed to be a type of Native American Tribal music… it had a strong beat… and had a peaceful yet empowering rhythm… I put my head down yet again… dug down deep in my soul yet again… lengthened my stride (yet again) and pushed it to the top of the hill
Phew we turned another corner after that one… I was noticeably looking for the mile 12 marker after that… I was ready for the race to be over… those hills really gave me a run for my money…luckily soon after we hit the mile 12 marker… that was the happiest I was to see a mile marker the whole race… I knew that with only 1.1 miles left I could conquer this thing.. I could already feel the soreness in my legs.. but I kept going… a girl with a pink sweatshirt passed us yet again…(we had been playing tag) I thought to myself uh I hate that stupid pink sweatshirt!! I’m so sick of seeing it!! Yet I couldn’t seem to find it in myself to turn up the volume and finish strong.. I knew I COULD but because of a mental mind block I have unless I came to the 13 mile marker OR could see the finish I wasn’t going to be able to punch it… Jen started feeling it… I told her do it.. punch it get to that damn finish line…I’ll be there soon! Lol as she started to take off I could see the huge crowd of people… and the cones started getting narrower…another girl I had been playing tag with me passed me.. and Jen started to get further and further away from me and I decided F-It… those bi*&hes were going DOWN!!! I found some sort of heart left in my chest and started picking up the pace… the two girls were neck and neck in the narrow shoulder so I yelled “MIDDLE” and leapt thru the tiny space there was between them… I yelled my apology as I know darting thru the middle isn’t proper running etiquette.. BUT there was no room and I wasn’t about to be DQ’d for stepping outside the cones!! Someone yelled “finish is around the bend!!” so I cranked it up even more.. I was pumping my arms so fast I must have looked like a cartoon.. you know when the roadrunner’s legs start twirling in a circle while its body just kind of stands still.. that’s what I felt like…but I didn’t care… arm momentum leg momentum I didn’t care I was going to get to that finish line!! I looked up and the clock said 2:21… then shock set in… and my legs went even faster… and I managed to cross the finish line just behind jen… I almost fell over as a kid handed me my finishing medal.. I think I might have even had tears in my eye…Jen and I said forget the fricken high five and hugged the sh!t out of each other as the silly marathonfoto people kept saying “over here over here!!! Marathon photo!!” hey couldn’t’ you see we were having a moment???!!!! We took our finishing photo and wandered around to the food tent.. I think the way I felt after crossing the line is the poster feeling for runners high… I was in a complete and utter daze.. everything was hazy and I felt like I was floating...(runners high might be interrelated to moderate to severe dehydration but that is just speculation) We somehow made it to the bus and back to our hotel… after we showered and got dressed we somehow managed to find a red lobster where we relished in our victory while sipping mimosas and chowing down!
We both decided that a half marathon really wasn’t that bad… and decided we were without a doubt going to start training for the full Tucson marathon next year….
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