Well...to recap my day, I will start with the previous day. We dropped the kiddos off at Gee's house around 2 and then headed downtown. We had to stop at the Expo and get our race day packets that contain our bibs, timing chip and relay/race info. We met up with our coaches Dave and Meg who brought us over to meet their idol, a man very famous in the marathon world, by the name of Dick Beardsley, who said "When you cross the finish line, it will change your life forever". We actualy got to shake his hand and talk with him about our race. He gave us advice...one thing he said was when you start off running you need to slow down, slow down some more and then slow down again. He said most people start off way faster than they usually run because they are so excited and launch out the gate with everyone else that is charging past them. I listened to him in awe. He is a legend...so it was very inspiring to meet him. After that we headed on over to the hotel.
We stayed at the Fairmont hotel on Saturday night and had our inspirational pasta dinner at 6. The dinner was full of all the TNT runners in North Texas and their families and friends. It was a full house. We loaded up on pasta and listened to the Coaches, Directors and Honored heroes talk. We got advice on what to do come race day and were moved by a man named Dave...he was our honored hero. Dave says he likes to just refer to himself as the mascot. Anyway, he has fought Leukemia since 2002. He has been in remission now for 18 months...this is his 3rd time in remission. He detailed out when he got it and how he was treated and all that he has gone through. He talked about how much the experimental treatments cost and told us how 6 months of the treatment he received was $250,000! The directors just told us that we raised $252,000 for the winter team...that's why raising this money is so important. We afforded someone like Dave to receive life saving treatment that may save many more lives. He is not out of the woods, it could come back, but for now he runs marathons and stays positive and has a zest for life. I was very inspired to hear him talk and I put a Dave ribbon on my jersey to think of him if I was struggling on my run.
After the food, we decorated our jersey. I put my name on my jersey with bright yellow duct tape and on the back I wrote "Cancer Sucks"...that was for Adine! Back at the room we laid out all our gear, attached our bibs to our shirts, put the timing chip on our shoes and tried to get some sleep. I set my event timer on my watch when we first started training, that is how I always knew how many days to go...so I had to take a picture of the watch. After tossing and turning for awhile, I fell asleep about midnight!
The big day arrives. We got up at 5am, had some breakfast, got dressed and headed down to the lobby. Not nervous at all at this point...I am just feeling READY! We got loaded up on our shuttle about 6:10 and I don't know what the driver was thinking, but he had the heater blazing hot and he chose to go from the hotel to the AAC on the service road of the highway. It took 40 minutes to go less than 1 mile!!! We arrived at AAC and followed the coaches advice and got in line for the bathroom. Now I am ready to run!!!
We met up with the rest of our teammates at the TNT tent and then shortly after, started off to the corrals to line up for the start. Woo hoo...I am so pumped at this point...excitement has been building for all these months and the day is finally here. Then, boom, there goes the starting gun. We were in the corral A because we were relay runners...that is where the really FAST runners go. That was a challenge to not get run over...wow...a mob of a lot of really fast people charging behind you was a little intimidating. I had to remind us to slow our pace down and not get sucked into the momentum of it all. I got to run with Stacy and Trinity. Stacy has been running with me for awhile now and Trinity has been nursing an ankle injury. We were all used to the same pace, so I had to make sure we stayed with that pace and didn't start off too fast. We did get to mile one at 12:18, so we were right on target with the pace. Everything was awesome...the weather couldn't have been better....it was cold in the 40's...PERFECT!!! About mile 3, Stacy's knee started bothering her! I was so bummed for her, she hasn't been injured the whole time and race day her knee starts giving out. I was sad about it, but she wanted us to run on ahead and let her walk.
Then about mile 4 or 5, Lisa frantically catches up with us and needed to use my cell phone to call Meg and trade shoes with her. She bought new shoes and didn't get to break them in enough and her feet were in agony. She was running the full marathon and the relay, so she needed to get that fixed. Meg ended up giving her the insoles of her shoes to put in Lisa's shoes...seemed to do the trick. She finished!
Mile 6 was the relay hand-off. My team was Barb and Rhonda. Barb ran leg 2-3 and Rhonda 4-5. It was so great to see them waiting there for us. Passed off the baton and headed the other way, back to the Half course. Pretty much the course so far was a gradual hill...after mile 6 it went downhill from there.
Mile 7-8 was a very long boring stretch on this very straight road and then we got to the end and turned around and stayed on the same road. I was happy I got to see Stacy and Jessica along the way though.
The next thing I know we are on Katy trail! That started the final desent to the finish line. I was just so excited to be doing this. I was so filled with adrinaline...I think I could have run another 10 miles! I was thrilled to see a group of our friends cheering us on as we ran, all the Co Co moms hubbies and their little ones, it was so nice to see familiar faces yelling our names! Here comes mile 13...I see the finish line. I just started running as fast as I could and ran it home! My first half marathon!!! It was one of the best feelings in the world! Once I finished I saw my old running buddy Deborah...she was cheering for me as I ran in. It was so nice to see her. She worked so hard right along with me...it was kind of bittersweet that we weren't running to the finish line together.
Now that I have run a half marathon, I have already signed up for another one in March and I am going to run a FULL marathon on my birthday.
I guess Dick Beardsley was right when he said "Once you cross the finish line, it will change your life forever". I am, forever changed.
