Rock and Roll, Baby!

I set a goal at the beginning of the year that I would run a half marathon this year. I've been training, and have gradually worked up the mileage so that I felt pretty confident that I could do it. I did it today! I woke up at 3:30,My running partner picked me and Hayden up at 4, and we arrived in downtown Seattle just after 5. We quickly said goodbye to Hayden (was that irresponsible leaving a 15 year old alone in downtown Seattle? He quickly called his grandma to get his uncle Mark's phone number so he could come hang out with him. Keep in mind that it was about six am on a Saturday and his uncle is single. lol) We waited in "line" for a shuttle for about 45 minutes, but apparently adults don't know how to stand in line, so eventually we just shoved our way to the front and got on a bus, taking us to the starting line in Tukwila. Once there, we waited in another line for the porta potty. Wow, there was a row of hundreds of them, but there were thousands of people in line, so it took a while. We found our corral, and got there just minutes before we had our send off. We made pretty good time, staying at about a ten minute per mile pace for the first five or so miles, and then slowing down just a bit. We don't work out on hills much, so some of the hills were pretty brutal. Our final time was 2:17. I had no idea what to expect, so I was really happy just finishing. The first ten or so miles were pretty uneventful. I didn't have anything to drink before the race, and didn't drink until mile 8 because of my issues that some of you may remember from my triathlon last year. :) Well, after mile 8 I started drinking the Cytomax and the water at every station and I'm glad I did. I was a little dehydrated at the end, but not too bad. I was really enjoying the run and thinking that maybe I would start training for a full marathon. At about mile 11 or so, we rounded a curve into Seattle and we could see Safeco Field right in front of us. Knowing that that was our ending point, it was really hard curving up and down streets in downtown Seattle for those last couple of miles. I really wanted to stop running, but the spectators cheering helped, and knowing that Hayden was in those crowds watching me helped too. I didn't want him to see his mom give up at the end and start walking! So I finished, muttering, "I will never run again!"

So we run through the finish line, and suddenly it is a dead standstill. So many people finished all at once that it was hard for the volunteers to get the medals to everyone, and then people were stopping for pictures. You couldn't walk, you couldn't stretch! My legs were starting to cramp up, I was getting dizzy and a little nauseated. So I pushed through, got a bottle of water and chugged it, and went around and got a bunch of food and stretched. We sat down for about a half hour to rest, then finally got up to find Hayden and Mark. It was fun seeing them and finding out what they had been doing for the past couple of hours. Hayden enjoyed seeing the super fast marathoners. He hopes to run a marathon soon after his mission (you have to be at least 18 but I think he wants to wait until he's done growing for that hard of training). It took us a while to get to the car and--oh--those stairs up to the parking garage were brutal. When I got out of the car at home, my legs were totally cramped up and I totally hobbled up to my house! I came in and took a long hot shower, took some ibuprofen and I was a new lady! I feel great! A little sore, but totally do-able! And once again, I am planning on a marathon this fall! :)