I prayed and prayed the night before that the weather would cooperate, at least until after the race was over. I mean, yes we do need rain but for a couple hours in the morning while I was running, was it too much to ask that it just not rain? I guess not, because the Lord was very accommodating. I have said this before but I owe the fact that I run at all, to the weather here. It really was a perfect morning for running. It was a little chili but my wonderful husband let me borrow his extra pair of running gloves, which I only wore for a couple miles. It was cloudy but not raining.
My 11 year old daughter Sarah was also running the half marathon. This was her 6th one in less than a year! She amazes me, she doesn't even train for them. That's kids for you. Of course, my husband was running with us too. I do not run alone- or do I. We started out really great. Sarah was ahead of us and kept looking back to make sure we wouldn't catch up to her. Well, eventually, we did catch up to her and she was not doing so good. She was having some leg pains and the was getting discouraged about the race.
I had a goal to stay at a certain pace and Sarah was just struggling more than she ever has so I told BJ to just stay with her. So, I ran ahead of them, by myself! I couldn't believe what I was doing. BJ said, they would catch up to me. Well, I went for another 2 or 3 miles and realized that they weren't catching up with me. He had given me one water bottle so I could refill that but I had no food. I don't like gatorade or the goo's or actual food while I'm running but have found that I can handle the Shot Blocks. They are basically like really big fruit snacks. I didn't have any with me though. As I make the turn around at the halfway mark, I start thinking that at least I'll pass them so I can get my Shot Blocks but I was also worried about how Sarah was doing.
As I come up to them, Sarah is looking a little better so I feel better. BJ hands me my Shot Blocks and another water bottle and off I go again, by myself! Who is this woman, running a race by herself? Not me, oh yes it was! The fact that I was doing this by myself, just kept me going for another mile or 2 until it started to get really hard. By now I'm at mile 7 or 8 and I am getting really tired. BJ had told me that our friend Bob was going to come up and ride his bike to check on Sarah and I started thinking that maybe I would run into him. Well, we are so lucky to have friend like Bob. Here he comes on his bike with his Yoda helmet. Always good for a laugh and not a moment too soon.
I was starting to talk myself out of keeping my pace and just telling myself, to just finish. It didn't matter what my time was, I just needed to finish. Along comes Bob, like an older brother just watching out for us. He rides along with me for awhile and tells me he will go check on BJ and Sarah in a little while. I start thinking "Please don't leave me" . He stays.
BJ catches up to us to see how I'm doing. He did some pretty fast running to catch up with us. He didn't know that Bob had showed up but was hoping he had. Checks on me and says to Bob "You're going to stay with her, right?" Bob says, "sure I will". I am so relieved! BJ speeds off to go back and catch up with Sarah who is about a mile behind us.
I tell Bob, how grateful I am he is staying with me and that I didn't think I would be able to keep running at that pace without something to motivate me. I mean, with someone on a bike next to you, you don't really want to slow down. It's hard enough to ride slow while someone is running, I didn't want him to have to slow down even more!
Well, I didn't walk more than a minute for each of those last miles. I'm not saying I ran as fast as the beginning but I didn't just give up my goal pace!
The last quarter mile, Bob rode up ahead to tell my daughter Kate that I was coming so she could take a picture of me. She and Eric hung out at the aid station, the whole time. They were real troopers. I came up over that bridge and saw the finish line and I was so happy!!
I had a time in mind that I thought was doable and I had a time in my mind that I wanted to beat but wasn't sure if I could. Well, I did! I beat my previous half marathon time by 30 minutes!
Sarah and BJ were only a mile behind me. I was so proud of her for sticking to it and not giving up, even though she wasn't feeling her best that day. She is amazing.
Thanks to my wonderful husband for being an inspiration to me, Sarah, Justin and many of his friends. Hereally instilled a love of running in me!
Thanks to our good friend Bob Satko for being such a good support to all of us, especially me this time. He has given us the gift of his time many times to be race support.
I am so grateful for this experience. I think I'll do it again!
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