Race for the Cure

I started prepping the night before by laying out the race clothes & gear & then I packed a bag of dry shoes & clothes b/c they were calling for the overnight rain to quit right before the race-I figured I had gotten lucky last month & surely couldn't get so lucky 2x. (but I did-yay) I also gathered my book, camera, the deposit (I needed to drop off on my way out of town,) purse & cash, filled my water bottles & put them in the fridge, & finally got in the shower to relax & went to bed. 

It was a rough night for Gus, we were up 4x thru the night for him to potty. :( so I didn't get a great night's sleep but after 3 yrs of it, I should be used it by now haha.  So I got up when Tim got up for hunting , dressed, warmed up some coffee & got around to head out a bit early.  Dropped off my deposit, got a fresh donut @ the gas station I was meeting the neices @ to convoy. The girls showed up & we headed North.

After a couple of one way street fiascos we found & entered the parking garage to catch the park & ride bus.  We did hit a few of the vendor tables on the race grounds, drank a bottle of water, hit the potties, did the warm up exercises, then split up for our prospective routes - walk, run, timed run.  I chatted up a lady in the timed runner's area sharing running stories while we stretched out some more, until the gun shot scared the tar out of all of us LOL.  @ that point we walked a block or so b4 we were spread out enough  to actually jog.  I hit play on my mp3 player (that I had forgotten to load the new podcast on-BOO) AND WE WERE OFF.....

At about the mile mark, I ws completely rethinking my clothes! Sweatpants-real ones w/fleecey inside, not those thin flappy things they have out now, the long sleeved race t, and a long sleeved girlie long john type shirt under it.  At about the half way point (of my 38 minute podcast) I started but I started getting nauseous & dizzy, so I decided to walk a little.  That only lasted a little time because I hated getting passed & felt like I was wasting the experience by walking, so I kicked it back in & jogged more.  Unfortunately I kept having those spells of ill feeling so I had to keep stopping to walk until it went away, once I did try to run thru it & stumbled so decided to just walk them when they happened.  :( 

I heard alot of  "this is stupid" "whose idea was this anyway?" "are you ok" "just go, I'll see you @ the finish line" & the most common was "omg can you believe its so hot today?"  all of this over my podcast I had blaring :) I think I need to learn to block the surrounding voices out.

Nearing the end we meshed w/the 1k walkers so it was a little confusing & chaotic for a little ways but nothing too stressful.  Just nothing I expected so 'early' in the race. I put 'early' in quotes b/c it was over the 3/4 point but felt like we had MILES to go.   A few minutes later my podcast ended... 38 minutes done & no finish line in sight. I was so sad I wasn't going to make my 40 minute goal. Sad lead to frustration, frustration lead to anger that was able to use to plug along chanting 'go, go, go' in my head.  I listened to Tesla 'signs' & totally tuned in, screaming the words in my head to keep focused on something other than 'how much further'. Before I knew it, we were done.  42.20 right b4 I crossed the line so I added 5 for my unofficial time.  I have no idea how I will find my official one.

I got a bottle of water, picked a spot on the side & started stretching among the crowd.  Grabbed another bottle of water & headed for the shade up on the hill to watch for the neices to cross w/the walkers.  We texted a couple of times then hooked back up.  When they were rested we headed for the parking garage-skipping the bus thinking we were  closer to the garage than the bus stop we walked aimlessly LOL. ran into another group of ladies looking for the same garage & then happened upon a bus @ a stop sign.  Finding out he was headed -eventually- to our garage, we hopped on.  Rode on up to the bus stop picking up other participants, some ended up being more family members we didn't know were there much less, expected to see!  Funny that we were all in teh same garage! They invited us to lunch w/them so we accepted as we were discussing lunch too. 

Oh my this is getting drawn out. sorry!! Lunch out @ a buffet was just what the dr ordered! I was pretty proud of my choices even after telling the girls I was craving GREASE & lots of it :)  While eating,  a facebook status came over my cell that stated that the race wasn't just a 5k but rather 3.51 miles. That made me feel a bit better about my time, just not the clothing choices. Stuffed to the gills, soul-full of girl chat, we parted ways & I headed home. 

The race was so amazing.. so  many people.. such a great cause.. quite emotional @ times..

I can't wait for my next one in 2 weeks. Knowing the route of it, I need to practice hills for sure.