As expected, I woke up horribly nervous for today's race. I fell asleep shortly after midnight, woke up at 2am when my air conditioning turned off, woke up again at 6am when my best friend Stephen texted me "good luck" and then literally jumped out of bed at 8am when my alarm went off. I guess I was in the deep, REM state because I thought I was having a heart attack - my heart was beating so fast and I couldn't catch my breathe. Then I started to panic and began to question if my race was starting in 30 minutes or an hour and 30 minutes.
I had to actually sit down for about five minutes until I could think straight and get the strength to walk to my living room and find the papers telling me when/where the race was. I hate when I wake up like that.
I put on all of my gear - and I warn you - I got up and got dressed - I don't get all dolled up for races...
I put on my gray jacket because it was still slightly chilly. I ran to my office and googled the directions to the race since it was a new race site for me. As I was sitting in my office, I could hear the wind slamming against my windows and it made me nervous - was I going to be able to handle running in that?
I decided I could do it (along with all the support via facebook from friends) and set off for the race.
This is the weather that greeted me when I got to my car. Again, didn't really help the nerves I already had! I got behind the wheel and started driving downtown. Thankfully I left earlier than usual because the directions I printed were not good and I ended up a few blocks off from where I needed to be.
I finally found the location and parked my car. I took a deep breath, put on my "lucky" bib and hoped for the best.
I walked to the table to pick up my race shirt - very simple gray shirt with their logo and the pledge against racism. Walked back to the car and tossed it in the trunk and then went back to stretch. I arrived way earlier than needed so I got to watch the fun run (a little boy won at an 8:08 mile) and enjoyed watching the basketball and baseball team mascots play with one another and run with the Fun Run finalists. While I was watching the race I chewed on a few of the berry Jelly Belly's to get some caffeine before the race.
I know that most places will tell you to drive or at least walk your course before you race so you know where you are going. I never do that. I know that if I did, I wouldn't do it. I'd rather just run and experience it as I go. Especially with this race - I knew I would have a ton of hills and I didn't want to scare myself when I didn't need to.
Finally it was time to race. I set my iShuffle on non-shuffle setting and reminded myself I had to cross by or before "Survivor" by Destiny's Child because that's my 35 minute mark. I've been in a country mood since I got back from the Canyon so this mix is a lot of country with some rap. A new thing for me but it was a good mix.
I started out pretty easily - not pushing too hard but definitely feeling the pain in my legs. It made me thankful that I had taken 2 days off because I'm sure I would have hurt worse had I not. To be quite honest, I wanted to walk before I even hit the first hill but I just couldn't do it. I kept telling myself "you will not walk before you hit at least one hill!" so I kept pushing.
I started realizing people were slowly falling behind me so I just figured in my head they couldn't handle the hills and that's why they were falling behind. I never thought that it was because I was running faster than they were.
I hit the first hill and it was kinda steep - a little higher than I do around campus. I pushed and hit the top where it evened out a little bit. We went down a slight hill and then hit another one. The upside was with the third hill I passed the first 2 runners so I knew I was hitting near the turn around. That made me push even harder than I had been - I knew I was close. I told myself I'd walk when I got to the turn around at the bottom of the hill.
Then I hit the turn around and it was me and another woman. I couldn't let her see me walk after we made it that far so I kept pushing. A few minutes later I realized she had fallen behind so I used that to push me farther - I could beat her and she was obviously a good runner!
Once I crested the top of the second hill I started telling myself I knew I had only one more hill and it wasn't a bad one and then it was all downhill. Was I really going to walk when it was downhill? Of course not! So I kept pushing even though I didn't think I had anything left in me. My face felt like it was on fire and I wanted to die. As I hit the second to last corner I saw my car. Then it hit me - I was one block away from the finish line. I had to pass my car and run up a short hill to the finish line and I'd be done. I knew the last three people I had passed on the hill were closing in on me so as I hit the final corner I started to dig in and say to myself "you are almost there. You can do this! Don't fail me now!" outloud - partly to help psych myself up and also to freak those around me out a little bit to my advantage.
I pushed so hard on that hill and about half way up the hill I looked up and saw the clock... 28:30. I said outloud "you will cross before 29 minutes" and shot up the hill even harder. I could hear the crowd screaming and it fueled me even more. I crossed at 28:55, received my bottle of water and walked straight to a bench where I sat with my head down for about two minutes. I wasn't sure if I was going to throw up or pass out. After sitting quietly for a few minutes and gaining the ability to walk again, I grabbed an apple and headed back to my car.
That's when I took this photo:
I still can't believe I ran under 29 minutes! That's only my second time doing it. I can't wait to see how I placed overall and in my age range. I'm not worried about the next two races - I wanted to do under 29 for at least one of these three races and I did so now I can relax. : )
Tomorrow is the OKC half and full marathon. I know Erica will kick butt tomorrow - I can't wait to hear how she does! And it makes me even more excited about the possibility of running the half here in Tulsa in November!
