For most of the month of March I've been dealing with some major allergy attacks. So when I woke up with swollen/spotty tonsils on Friday before race day I was a little worried I might not get to run. I went to work and decided to cancel my last two appointments of the day in order to get to the Dr. before it got too late! I went to CareNow and saw the same Dr. I had seen earlier in the month when I though I had the flu. He swabbed me for Strep - Negative - then recommended a steroid shot. the shot worked like magic! I was feeling great before the night ended and actually was up until about 2am! Saturday I went back to work only to find that I had two cancellations and the one I still had ended up no-showing. I hung around doing laundry and stuff since Rhonda was picking me up from work for our big Run weekend!
We get downtown and fight a little traffic before deciding to just check in at the hotel and walk to the expo. This might be a good time to mention how much I dislike Dallas after living/playing in and around Fort Worth. The parking garage attached to the hotel was very tight. It certainly wasn't meant to hold large vehicles! The cost of parking was also ridiculous, not just there but any of the lots along the way to expo were crazy high! if they're going to charge so much they should at least take measures to monitor the cars being parked. We discovered Sunday Morning after we loaded all our belongings into Rhonda's car, that the car parked right in front of us had been broken into overnight... great, that's what I want to think about after I just loaded my laptop and purse up for the day as I run all over Big D. ...give it to God and get on with it!
Anyhoo, back to Saturday night. We get to the Expo and get checked in, get our shirts and swag bags... walk around a little, go back to registration to look for Kristy... OMG this one volunteer lady was a total B****!! we were trying to help Kristy get her bib and she didn't have any of her paper work with her so we were walking her back to the start and this lady was like I'm sorry this isn't an exit. So we explained that she needed to go back to the registration tables. She says well she can go but you can't (to me) I looked her in the face and said I'm trying to help my friend who doesn't know what she's doing or where to go... she clearly just walked right through all the first steps as it was. and that lady said I can't let you back in there! so again I said to her very firmly "She DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, I'M TRYING TO HELP HER" Kristy was already frustrated when she arrived and this lady was like the icing on the cake. Rather than get ourselves kicked out by a volunteer - when we paid for this event - I let her go and walked away from that lady before I completely forgot all about what Jesus would do here. Then Rhonda and I snuck through the curtain barricade and walked back through the main entrance to find Kristy on the other side of the gate keeper! We got her all situated and headed back in to shop around!
Later we had the Inspiration Dinner at the Hotel. I had to fight off a few moments of emotion so I didn't cry in my pasta dinner. Kind of a bummer to find out our coaches who have worked hard training us all season didn't get a free ticket to the dinner therefore, they weren't there... But it was a short and sweet night followed by finishing touches on our race shirts and a quiet night trying to get some sleep!
Mar 25, 2012 5:06 AM - Text from Coach Dianna "Happy Race Day!!!"
aaaaaaand I'm up for the day. no sleeping now! get out of bed about 5:30ish and get a shower. Yes, I actually did my hair and makeup, and YES! I wore fish-net gloves! - it IS the Rock n Roll marathon after all, I have to look cute! Ate my usual Power Crunch Energy Protein Bar and started on a bottle of Vitamin water. Everyone suggests to go # 2 before the race... well that wasn't working out for me. I tried, no luck. We packed up and loaded the car. After a brief visit in the lobby followed by group photo session with the entire North Texas TnT participants we headed out for the Start! Everyone walked to the start as a group then we dispersed to the different corrals or headed to the porta-potties for one last attempt at whatever needed to happen! I drank a 32oz Powerade while waiting in line and barely got a trickle - guess I was nervous!! :-)
We decided to start out in Corral 11. My number started with 11 b/c I was ambitious when I filled out my paperwork and thought I'd finish in 2.5 hours... Rhonda had Registered for a 3.5 hour finish time, but she was the time keeper for us all season and was always calculating estimated finish times and telling me how fast we'd have to go to finish in 2.5 hours! I knew we wouldn't get to 2.5, but I was definitely hoping for 3 hours... the cool thing about getting to the corral early is that you can be right in the front! When they were moving us forward to the start we were front and center! perfect for all photo ops!! The excitement was building and we were waiting to be counted off... and then it happened! We were running our first 1/2 Marathon!
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| Running mile 3 with Coach Dianna beside us! |
The first couple of miles went pretty easy. Then it started warming up a little, sun was shining... it really was a great day for a run. We just weren't so used to the warmth having trained over the winter months. But we had our water belts and drank at every water stop along the way. Somewhere about mile 7, I started counting down in my head... mile 8, only 5.1 to go. Mile 10, only 3.1 to go... I hurt, I was tired, it was hot, my water bottles were warm, my lips were DRY... when we walk I could feel every pounding step from my toes to my hips...I wanted to stop so bad, but I wanted to finish even more!! I know this is supposed to be about the Cancer survivor's and victims that I was committed to raising money for all season. But at that moment it was about me, and what I did to get to this point. Where I was a year ago compared to this day and this moment... running in this race.
I wanted my mom to see me running.
I wanted my dad to be there...
I wanted my sister, brothers, nieces, nephews...
I wanted them all to see me running.
It wasn't just that I was running, it was that I was accomplishing something that not everyone can do, let alone actually WANTS to do!
Then I thought about Rhonda... her family isn't close by. She doesn't have a husband there to greet her at the finish. She beat her Cancer. And she's running! I had to quit feeling sorry for myself and suck it up! I came to win after all! (win=finishing) Fight-Conquer-Thrive, Survive-Prosper-Rise! In those final miles when everything in your body is telling you to stop because it hurts, we had each other. From start to finish we stuck together!
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| Crossing the finish line |
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| Finisher Photo! |
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| Bling Bling! |
What a weekend it was!! Rhonda and I had set up appointments to have a post-race massage. I bought one for TJ as well. So we got cleaned up and headed to our afternoon of relaxation! I wore my Medal all day! That night we met up with a couple of others from the team and had some celebratory drinks and dinner. I was exhausted! Thank goodness I though ahead and had taken the next day off work!
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| What it looks like to feel like Winner's! |
