13.1 MILES

My poor neglected blog. I have just not had the time to give you the love you deserve. I will try to do better.

First: Thank you Christina for talking us all into it
Second: We must have been destined to run together because things kept falling into place!


SATURDAY
*We woke up at 7 and were on the road by 8am. California - here we come. We stopped at Brian's parents house for a few hours when we arrived. Had lunch, played with cousins, and relaxed on the swing in the backyard next to the waterfall.
*At 3:00 we headed to my parents to pick up my Mom, and we were off to Huntington Beach. We had to pick up our race packets at the Expo. Without prior arrangements, we all got there at the same time and found each other within 5 minutes of arriving at the beach! We picked up our bibs and timing band. Got our cool tshirts and hung around to talk for a bit. Half went to check in to a hotel, and some stayed at the beach to watch the sunset. It was so beautiful and clear. It set right behind Catalina island.
*Brian, my Mom and I drove around for a bit to figure out where to park the next day, where the starting and finish lines would be, and how much time we should leave in the morning to get there in time. Then we headed over to Buca Di Beppo for dinner. Gotta get loaded up on Carbs! We had a party of 20 people and celebrated Grandpa's 88th birthday while we were all together. Brian went to his parents to take care of the girls, and I went to my parents to get some uninterrupted sleep :o)

All the medals, ready to be handed out

SUNDAY
*I woke up at 5:30, got dressed, had breakfast, and left to pick up Lana. We arrived at Edison High School and took a shuttle to the race. We were disappointed that we hadn't told the other girls where to meet us. There were 11,000 runners there, plus whoever they brought. We didn't have cell phones because we didn't want to run with them. I called Jim to see what the other girls were wearing, and when I turn around they are right behind me! I still think it is a miracle we found each other. We pinned our bibs on, some used the bathroom (which had crazy long lines) took some pre-race pictures, and headed over to our starting spot.

before - Lana, Christina, Tanya, Mandi, Ricki

waiting for the shuttle...it was freezing - well to me anyway :o)

*The race started and it was a little packed for the first 1/4 mile. Tanya and I took off and about 3 miles in Christina pops up next to us! I had to pee SO bad, so Tanya and I stopped to go, and when we got out we couldn't find Christina. So we took off running again. About mile 7 Christina pops up behind us again! I guess she had kept running when we stopped and then we passed her just before mile 7, so she caught up to us.
*Tanya and I were feeling really good, and so proud of ourselves that we had gone 9 miles and it didn't seem all that bad. A big lift was when we thought we were coming up on the 9 mile sign and it was the 10 mile sign! We weren't paying attention and mentally its a big boost when your a mile ahead of where you think you are.

A very small portion of the racers

*THEN it hit us. And I mean bad, and all at one, and both of us. The website said that the race would provide Goo (a gel like substance that helps replenish your sodium and glucose). There was no Goo, and we didn't bring any. Do you know what happens when your body runs out of sodium and glucose - your muscles freeze up, contract and don't want to move. At this point we had about 2.5 miles to go. We were dying. Tanya kept saying that she didn't know if she could make it...I was yelling at her hat she would be SO PISSED at herself if she went this far and didn't keep running. So we kept running. She did SO good. By this point it was all mental...our bodies wanted to quit, and our mind was the only thing keeping us moving.

We saw this sign with about 3/4 of a mile to go and it gave us a huge boost

*Just before the finish line I hear Brian yelling to me. (Again - amazing that I heard him with the thousands of people there) He and my Mom were leaning over the bar cheering for us. We crossed the finish line, hugged and even teared up a little. We were so proud of each other for running the entire way, finishing together, and just realizing a goal that we had made 6 months before.

This is when I heard Brian...and was trying to point him out to Tanya

We did it! (nice silver blankets hu?! -trying to keep our muscles warm)

*We got our medals, jumped the fence and found Brian. My calfs were like little hard balls, and I could barely walk. We went to the beach snack bar and got some french fries (I really needed the salt) and Brian ran to get us some Joint Juice that were giving out for free. We headed back to the race and Christina was sitting with Tanya! I missed her finish :o( We finished the fries in about two minutes and called Ricki to see where her and Lana were (Ricki was the only one who took a phone) They said they could see the finish sign, so we went over to the side and cheered them in.

I love this picture...we worked SO hard. I am so proud of these girls!

*It was an amazing feeling of knowing I had done the training and that my body was able to run 13.1 miles. It was hard. It hurt. And we are going to do it again! Someday I would like to do a full marathon, but now isn't the time. The training takes up too much of our valuable weekend time (Id spend hours running and the rest of the weekend recovering from the long run). So for now, I will try to beat my half marathon time. I had a great experience for my first race and will always remember it.
*The next race is The Orange County Half Marathon. It starts in Fashion Island and ends at the fair grounds. (last year it ended at the Spectrum - which would be way better, but parking was probably a nightmare) May third is the date, and as long as I have someone to run with, I will be registering in a couple weeks. Which means training starts all over again next week!

After!!!!!!!!