Sunday May 9, 2010

RACE DAY - Yesterday

Wow, yesterday rocked my world. It was awesome. We were so pleased and excited and had an incredible time with Jon & Brandy. It definitely exceeded all of my expectations!

We ended up getting to Indy a lot later than we wanted - we got out 1 1/2 hours later than anticipated and then hit traffic on the way out there. So we hit the expo, grabbed our packets and then met J&B for dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery. We got to bed later than we had wanted to, but it was fine.

Got up at 4am CST on Saturday morning (5am EST) so we could get to the city in time to get in our corral by 6:45. It was colder than we thought it would be and it was WINDY! I was pretty nervous about the wind as it wasn't a breeze, but rather gusts and the wind has proven to defeat me every time. We got into our corral on time and waited and waited. Finally hit the start line at probably 8am (EDS).

We were definitely in the wrong corral. When Cornbread and Brandy signed us up, they signed us up under 12:00 miles... which meant that the 4 of us did A LOT of dodging and jockeying for the first several miles. The first mile was the worst, but I don't think we stopped passing people like that until we got into the speedway.

Before I blinked we had run 6 miles and I told Cornbread that it was the easiest 6 miles I had ever run in my life. There is the difference between training on hills and running on a flat course. The race course was completely flat - the only hill/incline we had was entering the speedway and that hill was comparable to one of the hills on our 151st St. running path.

I felt awesome through 11 miles and then I felt like Cornbread was running slightly too fast for me. By that time we had lost J&B and were on our own. I felt amazing - my hamstrings were a bit tired, but my lungs and heart rate were good. I was not tired, I felt no need to walk at all. I was great. At 11 miles I told Cornbread that if he needed to run faster then he could go ahead and I'd go by myself - I couldn't keep up with the pace he was going for 2 miles. He slowed down a bit and that mile was the longest of the race (I think because there were 2 pit stops in that mile instead of 1). At mile 12 we picked up the pace. There was a slight decline at the beginning of the mile and the wind was at our back - I felt like we were cruising pretty well. I felt strong and in control and extremely confident. When we had 1/4 mile left we started picking up the pace even more and almost sprinted to the finish line. We finished and it felt amazing. I ran the entire thing. I didn't walk with the exception of while I was drinking water at the few water stops I went to (but I didn't even walk the length of the water stop... just the short time it took to drink the 1/4 dixie cup of water). I started crying because I feel like I can finally say that I'm a runner. I ran the entire thing - totally not what I expected. I expected to walk at some points, but we didn't at all. I didn't cry hard, but got a little teary.

A little more than a year ago (April 24, 2009) I ran my first race ever - the 5k at Calvin - and I couldn't even run a whole mile without taking a break. I finished that race and cried, too, but then I cried because I was so disappointed in myself... I had worked so hard to be a runner, I had been consistently running, I was confident - and then I couldn't even run a mile and panicked because of the hills on the course. At that point I started running outside and conquered the hills in the area, I willed myself to run higher mile routes, I increased my mileage, I got up to around 25 miles/week, I was determined to be a runner. At the end of our training program, I struggled. I missed several runs, I missed some long runs, I was conquered by the wind, I battled through a 12 mile run and walked a good portion of the end of it. But I came back and ran the entire 13.1 miles of the Indy Half Marathon. And to top it off, I felt like I could have run 2-5 more miles when I was finished. It was amazing and I am extremely proud of myself.

Final stats:
13.1 miles

2:12:47

10:08/mile