{"id":884,"date":"2009-06-24T00:30:29","date_gmt":"2009-06-24T00:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/?p=884"},"modified":"2010-01-04T18:31:37","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T18:31:37","slug":"half-marathon-the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2009\/06\/24\/half-marathon-the-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Half Marathon: The Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something weird happened around 5pm Friday.\u00a0 It was as if someone removed the butterflies prematurely – all the nerves and ramblings that I blogged about that morning pretty much left in the car on the way to San Antonio.\u00a0\u00a0 Usually the night befo\"\"re a race I’m jumpy and excitable and can barely get myself to calm down.\u00a0 That day, once we were in the car and finally through South Austin traffic, I got so relaxed and tired that I wasn’t even thinking about the race.\u00a0 I’m sure it helped that I only managed 5 hours of sleep Thursday night, but finally being on the way and the road vibrations were just lulling me to sleep.\u00a0 I resisted a nap, but I kept that serene calmness through the rest of the evening.<\/p>\n

We got to the hotel, relaxed a little bit, and then headed out for dinner.\u00a0 I wanted something I’d had before, and something not spicy (which eliminates most of the food I like), but also something sizable (I wanted to wake up not feeling hungry), so we settled on Saltgrass.\u00a0 I had half a loaf of bread, a salad with full fat ranch, a 7 ounce filet mignon, 5 fried shrimp, and mashed potatoes.\u00a0 I ate every bite except a few bites of leftover taters, and it was WONDERFUL.\u00a0 In retrospect, I don’t think I could have picked anything more satisfying to eat.<\/p>\n

We were going to make use of the hotel pool, but there was a huge family there, so we decided to wait until a little later and see if they had left.\u00a0 At 9pm, I was so wonderfully sunk into bed dorking on the laptop watching Sci-Fi, I didn’t \"\"even want to get up and take a shower like I had planned, so I just relaxed and drifted off to bed around 10:30.\u00a0 I found myself getting a *little* antsy when I started to try and close my eyes, but I just went ahead and went over my morning routine a few times and it was tedious enough to get me to dreamyland.<\/p>\n

The alarm blaring at 6am made me want to throw things, and immediately upon waking, my tummy was a bit upset (my 50 bazillion calorie meal and then sleep right after – it made sense), but after a nice long shower I felt good to go.\u00a0 My good shoes FINALLY didn’t make my hurty toe hurt, so I said a quick “thank you” to the running gods.\u00a0 TMI incoming – so I had not…shall we say…taken the kids to the pool in a while.\u00a0 I had been not quite so regular lately, but it seemed like it was more a situation of my body was using everything it was being given to power the flaming furnace which was the Quix-running-machine that I have been.\u00a0 This week, being a light workout week, I hadn’t quite had that problem.\u00a0 Until now.\u00a0 It had been at least 24 hours since my last “moving” moment.\u00a0 I had ingested a seriously large quantity of food the night before.\u00a0 And nothing.\u00a0 Even after chowing down on a whole Zone bar.<\/p>\n

We had to go even though I couldn’t…go (ok, poop puns stop here), so we got into the car, got slightly lost, and then around 7:10 found the place to catch the shuttle.\u00a0 No problem, right?\u00a0 So, so wrong.\u00a0 We were in line until 7 freaking 45 \"\"(yes, 15 minutes to gun time).\u00a0 The shuttle dropped us off at around 7:50-something, and then we found out it was about a half mile walk to the actual race.\u00a0 I started hearing “last call to get your numbers” so I left Zliten with the stuff and sprinted my ass off across the field and got my number and my chip, and was applying it while the first wave of relay racers crossed the starting line.\u00a0 Since the start was staggered, I went ahead and got rid of some excess water in toilets that didn’t have doors (eww) and when I got out, I saw the second wave go.\u00a0 I got up to the starting line as they were taking everything down and I frantically waved and pointed at my tag and they sorta rolled their eyes and said, go ahead.\u00a0 I was the last person across the line.\u00a0 The chip time probably included about 30 seconds to 2 minutes of standing on the mat haggling with the officials.\u00a0 Worst race start ever.<\/p>\n

I got out a little fast because I wanted to catch up with someone…anyone…\u00a0 I kept getting these pity cheers, like I was the slow kid, so I was very happy once we turned into the woods and I passed the second slowest person.\u00a0 After settling down from that, I started feeling really good.\u00a0 It was a beautiful morning, it was breezy, pretty temperate around 80 (not prime running weather for someone that hadn’t been training for it, but I didn’t feel like I was wading through a sauna), and the course was through a beautiful park.\u00a0 The first 3 miles were pretty awesome.\u00a0 When we rounded the final corner of the first lap, I got some encouragement from a relay runner after I asked an official how far we had left to go (no mile markers sucked!).\u00a0 She cheered for me every time she saw me.\u00a0 That was pretty awesome!<\/p>\n

About halfway into the second lap (50 minutes in), I ate my caffeine beans, which I had binder clipped to the inside of my running skirt (most genius idea ever – it held up so well and wasn’t uncomfortable at all) and then got a nice little \"\"boost.\u00a0 At the end of the second lap, I realized something was a little off – my feet were hurting.\u00a0 Not my toe, but my feet.\u00a0 I realized then how uneven the pavement was on some parts of the trail, and my tootsies were more used to sidewalk or level streets.\u00a0 After a while it just started to become a constant ache which I was able to get used to, so it wasn’t too horrible.<\/p>\n

Sometime on the third lap, I had convinced myself I was further along than I thought I was.\u00a0 I thought I had to finish that lap and then go to the finish.\u00a0 I ate my second beans close to the end of the lap and then when I approached the turn, I asked the offical and she said we had to complete FOUR full laps and THEN head to the end.\u00a0 Zliten was right there and said “One more lap, keep going”.\u00a0 I was totally flabbergasted.\u00a0 I slowed down a little because the ache had come back.\u00a0 I moped a bit.\u00a0 Then I realized, I had one more lap to do and I was done and I could stop running, hell, I could stop standing for an entire week if I wanted.\u00a0 So on I trudged.<\/p>\n

I swear they added at least 2 extra miles to that last lap.\u00a0 I kept thinking I was turning the last corner and nope, there was just more fucking forest.\u00a0 I even got aide instead of water at one of the last stops hoping the sugar would help.\u00a0 I \"\"must have looked so out of it, one of the officials cheered me on, telling me I had about one mile to go.\u00a0 That was the longest fucking mile ever.\u00a0 Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I rounded the last corner and got a little pep back from a cheer from the relay runner, and headed for the finish.\u00a0 I didn’t feel like I had anything left to give but when I saw the finish line, I started sprinting anyway.\u00a0 In my head, instead of “dig, dig, dig, dig” which I’ve chanted to get me to the end of long runs, I was chanting something like “sit, sit, sit, sit”.<\/p>\n

I crossed the finish looking pretty strong (according to Zliten), and managed to hold it together for them to clip off the chip.\u00a0 I walked around a little bit, got about 6 cups of water, and then needed a sit.\u00a0 Badly.\u00a0 We found a bench and I just kinda recovered and stretched.\u00a0 After I had use of my legs back (slightly), we walked back up to the race.\u00a0 The post-race food didn’t look that great, so I tried a beer and some cheese.\u00a0 After a bite and a few sips and another sit, those weren’t settling well at all, so we just decided to head out.\u00a0 That half mile back to the shuttles was FUCKING painful.\u00a0 I know you’re supposed to cool down and stay mobile for maximum recovery, but \"\"I just couldn’t.\u00a0 I was hobbling.\u00a0 Once we got on the shuttle, I exclaimed that sitting was the best thing ever.\u00a0 I didn’t even notice the AC until Zliten told me that was the best thing ever for him.<\/p>\n

We got back to the hotel, I stripped off my soggy clothes (a mix of sweat and dumping at least half a water on myself each mile – but I think either would have thoroughly soaked me through and through without the other) and took about a 20 minute bath, then a 20 minute shower.\u00a0 I died on the bed for a bit and then we headed home, with a stop at the italian buffet first.\u00a0 By that time I had the ability to maneuver my legs without worrying about failure, but there was definitely a dull, aching throb.\u00a0 I was pretty much braindead the rest of the day and didn’t get up off the couch.\u00a0 Sunday was a little better, but my hamstrings were still super sore.\u00a0 Yesterday, however, I was a new person.\u00a0 I got up, did a DDR and yoga session before work, and my legs feel, for all intents and purposes, back to normal.<\/p>\n

What’s next for me?\u00a0 Stay tuned and I”ll yak about that tomorrow!<\/p>\n

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Something weird happened around 5pm Friday.\u00a0 It was as if someone removed the butterflies prematurely – all the nerves and ramblings that I blogged about that morning pretty much left in the car on the way to San Antonio.\u00a0\u00a0 Usually the night before a race I’m jumpy and excitable and can barely get myself to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paUhDu-eg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1586,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions\/1586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}