12.29.2009

Race Recap

Whoa! Has it really been MONTHS since I made a post on here? Sheesh, I'm sorry. Well you might be wondering how the Las Vegas Half Marathon went. It went awesome.

The training definitley paid off. I stuck to my training plan, for the most part. Of course I had to work around the kids' schedule and run when I could. Mostly, I would run in the morning on Monday's and Wednesday's after dropping Nathan off at school. I would put Ryan in the jogger and do 2 - 4 miles. Then on the weekend I'd do my long run, usually 6 - 10 miles.


I had to mentally train myself for this, too. It was a total mind game. As soon as my body started feeling weak, I literally had to tell myself to put one foot in front of the other. Never quit. Oh man, I remember the first time I ran 7 miles, I wanted to DIE. But the following week I ran 8 and only wanted to pass out. A couple of weeks later I ran 10 miles and I actually felt pretty good.


So on December 4th we flew to Las Vegas. It was a Friday, which meant there were two whole days before the race that I would be let loose to some of the most amazing restaurants ever. I managed to contain myself and refrained from dessert and alcohol for two days. But, man was I planning on letting loose after the run! Went to bed early on Saturday night.

The morning of the race could not have gone better if I tried. I woke up at 4:30 am feeling suprisingly rested. I felt calm, not nervous. I started getting dressed, nibbled on a banana and a granola bar. Almost time to head downstairs where about 27,000 other runners would be getting ready to run 13.1 or 26.2 miles. It was freezing. Literally. When we stepped outside I could feel my lungs freezing. It was 32 degrees at 6:00 am. I was too pumped to be cold.

At about 6:30 am the first runners crossed the start line. It was probably about 25 minutes before I even got there, remember, 27 THOUSAND runners. The sun was just coming up and Las Vegas looked so peaceful. Finally, my turn to cross the start line. Off I went.

Gosh, all that training paid off. I felt great. No shin splints, no side cramps. The commeraderie was inspiring. I went seven miles straight before I started to walk. Man, my knees were killing me. From that point I would run about a mile, then walk for a few minutes, run a mile, walk a few minutes. At mile 11 I wanted to die, but I could see the Mandalay Bay in the distance. That was were the finish line was waiting for me.

Mile 13, only .1 more miles to go. I crossed the finish line. I did it. Me, who couldn't run 2 laps around the track on my first day of training. I hate to toot my horn, but I was extremely proud of myself. I am proof that you can do anything to put your mind to.

I'm super proud of my husband, too. He did his second full marathon that day. I could not and would not have done this race if it wasn't for him.

We spent two more days in Vegas after the race and enjoyed the way Vegas was meant to be enjoyed!