13.1 miles

i need one of those stickers for my car. you may have seen them. 26.2, 13.1, 50k, etc. why? because i just ran a half-marathon! i didn't run the whole thing, but i DID run at least 10 miles of it. in fact, i ran the first 7 miles w/o walking at all (except to drink a little bit of water or gatorade at 2 or 3 drink stations)! that's HUGE for me. i may run slow, but i get it done! :-)  at the expo the day before where we picked up our swag bag, shirt, and other things, there were tons of vendors selling stuff. and there were stickers. one of them had a cute turtle on it that said, "I AM running!"  i really shoulda bought that and ironed it onto the back of my shirt.

these races ARE kinda fun. i mean, there's a connection you make with 25,000 strangers in your midst. you're all crazy together, so you already have something in common! and there's tons of people all along the route cheering you on with crazy signs or costumes. it's just fun to participate in something so big and so hard, together, even though they are all strangers and the people cheering are actually waiting for their loved one, not you. :-)

so why did i run in Phoenix? well, because of my step sisters. Gaylene (pictured in the middle) got a brilliant bug up her butt that she wanted to do a half in order to push her into exercising. she found this one and decided it would be fun for us to meet there and do it together. She and her sister, Kim (at right), met me there on Friday and we partied until 9pm at which point we realized we were too old to be partying! LOL  Saturday we were lazy and then Sunday Gaylene and I got up in the dark and made our way to the start line of the half in downtown Tempe.

we started off together, but Gaylene took off soon after we crossed the start. she's much faster than me, by 3 minutes per mile in fact. that was fine by me - i'd rather her go on and run her race - she had her own goal to accomplish! and she did, in fact, surpass her goal with a time of 2:17. really proud of her! :-)

i realized around mile 10 that i'd been following this one girl for a long time. she had on a green t-shirt that said "me vs road" and i finally clued in that i'd been using her as a gauge for my pace. turns out she and i were running the same speed, and walking the same speed. so around mile 11 i started running again and passed her up saying, "you are doing awesome! keep it up!!!"  not far down the road i had to walk again and here she came saying, "come on, you can do it!" and from there on we encouraged each other. i learned her name is Amy and her goal was to finish in the same time as me - 2:59:59 or under. this was her third race, i think.

we both crossed the finish line together, running as fast as our exhausted legs could carry us. i looked her up later on the finishers site and found her official finish time being 11 minutes ahead of me. guess she started a little earlier than me? i don't know. i just know i needed her. and i think she needed me. and it was nice to have a buddy to help me in that last mile. the last couple of miles really are the very hardest!


after the race is a concert. this was, after all, the Rock and Roll Marathon! i was kinda looking forward to seeing the B-52's, but we, however, have NO CLUE how that went because we were completely done and ready to get back to the hotel to ice our knees and shower. we had salt, crystallized salt, on our faces - it was the strangest thing. and my knee was absolutely killing me, i was limping all night and all the next day.

we cleaned up and went for a celebratory dinner at Mellow Mushroom. i had my very own 12 inch gluten-free vegan pizza and it was SO YUMMY i ate the entire thing!!! and then we got ice cream. the ice cream was regular, and sent me over the "i'm so full" stage into the "i'm going to be sick i'm so full" stage. the ice cream was good, but it wasn't so good i wanted more the next day. i think i'm happy with the plan of having ice cream, or something, once a year for my birthday. as long as i work super hard to earn it.

i think running 13 miles is work enough this time. :-)

now, back to reality, back to life, back to the strictly clean diet and the gym. it's time to see if i can improve my speed!