christine's half/marathon life

formerly called am I ?)(king crazy... (the answer to that question is 'of course', by the way...)

a few days ago, Rick was seriously questioning whether or not he would be able to finish the full White Rock without severly injuring his ankle... he asked me if I wanted to do the half, I said if he wasn't going to do the full, I may TRY the half (no training since September - longest distance was 8 miles). he was kinda wishy-washy about it, so I just said FINE, I'll do the half... **that night**, I got charlie horses in my legs... and the night after as well... and my toenail looked 'off' and felt weird..

so I swore Rick to secrecy.... if I was going to fail miserably, I didn't want the world to know... only person I told was my twin and that was just last night. she's completed a marathon & half before so she was very helpful on the tips...

we stayed at a hotel to be close to the race, J slept in our room and was up - a lot!! sleep for me was sporatic at best...

we left for the parking lot a tad after 5am, getting to what turned out to be the perfect spot... a little sleeping and (too) little eating*... i just was not hungry... had 1/2 piece of marble loaf and a few sips of chocolate milk... tummy was already in gastro distress due to nerves and I didn't want to push things... immodium can only help *so* much... plus, the lines inside the AAC were crazy for the bathroom and this tooshie doesn't touch porto-lets if I can help it!!

I was in wave 'E' aka the slow people's heat... there were people my size, bigger, older, younger... a good mix! there were even the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!! and a guy who ran TWENTY-TWO half/marathons since February 2009! CRAZY!!

it took about 12 minutes to get to the actual start line, no fighter jets this year but confetti was apparently on clearance... lots of it falling..

speaking of falling (sorry, couldn't resist), there was this woman who did fall right at the start line. she was ok and got up right away.. I only mention this cause that is SO!! me.

mile 1 was thru downtown Dallas and way too hilly for my liking... it was funny to see all the bopping heads go up the hill...

the rest of the miles were primarily thru residential neighborhoods... VERY nice houses, a lot of the residents were outside cheering us on... very nice!

one stretch that stands out is mile 7-8... it was basically a (VERY) long u-turn... each 'line' of the U was well over 3/4 mile... it was dreadful!

the last 5k was through the Katy Trail... the only good thing about that was I didn't have to worry about getting hit by a car... yes, although I was not last, I was on the (really) slow side and there were maybe 100 people behind me, so they were opening streets to cars every once in awhile... although I did tell a cop about mile 8-9 to just let a car hit me so it'd be over ...

the bad thing about the Katy Trail is the lack of race support ... what would happen if I really couldn't make it? tripped, whatever?? and the fact that towards the end they had benches... very very bad thing... I'll admit I did sit to stretch for about 25 seconds about the 12 mile marker...

all in all, a crappy race simply due to the fact that I was not adequately trained and was SLOW (!!!!!)... I was so slow I did not get a finisher's shirt... they will supposedly mail me one... I missed the race set time cutoff by less than 5 minutes, but I missed it none the less... so what do i have to show for my efforts, achy body... entire body... from shoulders to tips of my toes, extreme fatigue and an amazing finisher's medal.

IF I choose to do more long distance racing, I WILL properly train...