One race down, eleven to go! I am exhausted just thinking about it but I feel great after our run this morning! After Jingle All the Way in rain, sleet and snow I didn't think a race could get much colder or wetter but the day started with frigid temps and freezing rain. We arrived early and watched the real runners warm up, stretch and run around the parking lot while we sat in the car with the heat on full blast. We did stretch in the car and then had 8 minutes to get ready at the start line. It was a very long 8 minutes and the National Anthem felt like it was never going to end! 5, 4, 3 (long pause) GO! Really? That's how you start a race? What happened to 2 and 1?
I actually remembered MapMyRun today a.) because I wanted this mileage to count for my 2014 total and b.) because I have forgot at every other race and wonder how far we've gone at about two tenths of a mile. For some reason this felt like the toughest race yet.
When I heard someone say we had hit 1 mile I wanted to turn around and head back to the warm car and hit up Starbucks drive thru. It felt like we had been running for an eternity or at least longer than 10 minutes! At 1.5 miles I was seriously contemplating all of this running and telling myself what an idiot I was for thinking this was a good idea and for singing up for a race a month and a HALF MARATHON. These thoughts kept me occupied until the next check point.
Around mile 2 my knee started hurting really bad so I stopped talking to myself about all of the running and started focusing on how I was running. My hip hadn't been bothering me so I thought I had fixed my problem with some stretching and now my knee started giving out. My competitive nature kicked in at some point after mile 2 because of the turn around, seeing other people breezing by on the other lane is extremely motivating. We even saw someone running in bare feet, I was complaining after 1 mile and here comes someone cruising by us IN. BARE.FEET. There was also a dad with a double stroller and two littles who was running in the HOV lane who blew by us. Kids of all ages ran and also passed us!
We got about 78 compliments on our pink tutus! We may have been the only people in tutus amongst the serious runners, actually there was one other girl. Most of the compliments came between mile 2 and 3. Someone even asked us if they made us run faster! I wanted to say something smart like, "Does it LOOK like we are running fast? Does it LOOK like we are at the front of the pack? Does it LOOK like I want to talk to you about my stupid tutu right now? I can't even breathe and I don't even like running." But I just smiled and said, "No, light up shoes do that! That's my next investment, light up shoes." She laughed and Lizzie asked if I was seriously going to buy light up shoes. We somehow made it to mile 3 and across the finish line.
Seeing the finish line always gives me an extra surge of energy and I can push it hard to the end. We finished in 33 minutes and some change according to the race clock (MMR was started in my pocket while we were waiting at the start line) which really isn't too bad. All that running and only 294 calories, I don't even think that covers the bowl of cereal, brownie and diluted gatorade I had before the race. {Sigh!} It always feels amazing to be done so why can't the actual running be more enjoyable? I am hoping that part comes with time and training...
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