Run the Rock

Me & Angie - This was my running partner for the past 6 months.

Me crossing the finish line in massive pain....legs barely functioning at this point.

I did it!!! I ran and completed the White Rock 1/2 marathon!!! It all started by simply wanting to lose some baby weight and now I've not only accomplished a huge goal but I've also discovered/developed a love for running.

The race...How do I describe it. Well, it was pretty much insane! The conditions were HORRIBLE!!! 1) It was bloody hot and humid. I never have done a long run with heat/humidity like it was the day of the race. 2) The first 7 miles were all up hill. I've been training at the lake which is relatively flat so going up hill wasn't something I was used to. This, in turn, caused my arches to hurt so000 bad during the race and it also caused blisters to form. After about mile 6, all I could think about was taking off my shoes and giving my feet some air. 3) Due to the heat, I was chapping which is a pretty miserable feeling. This started at about mile 7 or 8. Thank goodness they were handing out Vaseline along the way otherwise I would have been in trouble.

After about mile 7 it was all down hill (literally) and I thought it would be all uphill from that point on and that "the hard part is over". Wow, was I wrong about that. It only got worse!!! As noted in the blog yesterday....I was in so much pain at about mile 10 on to the finish line that I literally had thoughts of jumping off a bridge to end the pain. Then I thought about Clay, Lola and everyone else and figured that I probably wasn't thinking reasonably. What do you mean?!?!?

Anyway, with all the pains, I still did it. And now that I'm able to look back, I can actually say it was fun and all worth it. I have to admit that when I was crossing the finish line a tear came to my eye. I couldn't believe I had accomplish this goal. This is something that in my mind I had always wanted to do and I had finally done it. I'm not sure I'll run another 1/2 marathon again. The training is very long and it takes a lot of time. Plus, I've discovered through all of this that I love running but not long distances so much. I most likely will keep my runs between 3 and 6 miles in the future.

I do love the marathon atmosphere so I'm already signing up for the Austin marathon in February. As noted above, I'm not sure I have it mentally in me to do the full 13.2 miles but I plan on doing a relay. I'm in the process of "rallying the troops" and trying to get the relay team together now. I'll keep you posted.

My statistics weren't so good during the race. I pretty much did horrible but again...at least I did it. Overall, I think there were about 17,000 participants. Not sure what the split was between the 1/2 marathon and marathon. Here is where I placed: 4495th place overall (I only finished in front of 12% of the males...dang it), 2377th by gender (female of course), 442nd place in division.