It's About Time (Part 1)

It's been almost two weeks since I finished my first half marathon.  The newness of that reality is starting to wear off...and the sadness of the day is starting to lessen just a bit.  Several other sad things and many other happy things have taken the "headlines" spot of my life in the last two weeks.  I'm continually reminded to "make every day count".

Having said all that...I think it's time for me to try to write up a race recap.

I love reading recaps that other people write that are long and drawn out.  It makes me feel like I am there, running the course (usually much faster than I run when I'm in my own body!), experiencing the race through the eyes of the writer/runner.  I'm terribly sorry, but I can't write that kind of recap.  I don't have the memory to be able to store all the thoughts, sights, sounds, experiences and people I meet along the way in my mind, much less the writing ability to convey those things in a way that would keep you awake much less entertained.  But, I would like to record as much as I can so when I start forgetting I can look back on it and relive as much of the experience as I can.  (Honestly, I started forgetting before the race was over, so I'm spitting into the wind at best, but I'll still try!)

I rode up to Nashville with Speedy and the friend who loaned me her bike.  Okay...it's time to give her a name.  After thoughtful consideration...I'm going to call her Motorvator.  (She's a motivator and she's very driven, "motor"vator...I'll shorten that to MV8r.  It's not perfect, but it would be exceptionally hard to capture this person with just one name.)  Anyway...it was the perfect start to a great weekend.  We chatted the whole way to our hotel.  As we got closer, we saw the signs, the starting line area, and all the hoopla that goes along with a big race.

Our hotel was just a couple of blocks from the start line/expo so after we got checked in we walked over to pick up our "ultimate"ly disappointing goodie bag.  I don't know what I expected...probably more samples of junk I'd never use, or coupons that I'd just have to throw away, or trinkets that I'd feel bad about getting rid of but wouldn't be worthy of keeping around.  But, I'll admit I was let down by that one little thing.

I had vowed not to buy anything at the expo, excecpt a "meaningful" souvenir to commemorate my first ever half marathon.  I chose 13.1 and ENDURE beads for my (fake) Pandora.  I should have stopped there, but as we were walking by the Power Balance booth, we were "caught".  After an unbelievably convincing demonstration (performed on not only myself, but two of my running buddies and a complete stranger)...all four of us bought silicone wristbands for the low, low price of $25 each (which I'm really glad to see is a discount from the website price).  ((And, might I add...The Shaq believes it works, too!))


After we made it out of the expo, it was time for dinner.  Since just about anything that tastes good at a restaurant is on my "do not eat" list...going out to eat is not the fun it used to be.  Italian used to be my very all time favorite food.  I can remember a time in the not so distant past when 13.1 miles would have been a great excuse to belly up to an all-I-could-stuff-in-my-gullet-pasta-bar.  I'm still not happy over the fact that with the increase in mileage I can't also increase my consumption of starchy, saucey, garlicy, cheesy Sicilian delights.  Well...we went to what smelled like the best Italian place in Nashville, Buca di Beppo...and I ate....salad with plain Jane grilled chicken.  Thankfully Speedy has quite a bit of the same allergies as I do so we shared the...uh, yummy...salad (although she got to have a fantastic looking giant meatball).  As we munched like rabbits, the rest of our gang got to eat pizza and some fantastic looking/smelling pasta.  It was PURE TORTURE.

After torture-the-allergics was over, we went back to the room to set out our race clothes.  I wore a skirt I borrowed from MV8r, a super cute Nike singlet we had made for the race, my Sauconys, my new beads on a silver chain (also purchased at the expo-something to transfer the center charm out of my race medal), my white Nike sweats hat (well, at least it was white when I bought it), my fully charged and ready to go Garmin and my Power Balance wristband)....((yes, and Nike socks and my sports bra, duh)).  I also set out my Rice Energizer and apple juice for breakfast and my water bottle and my vanilla bean Gu for the race.

After making some plays on Words With Friends (I'm "DanaDeBard in case you play), and texting the fam, I laid my wittle head down on the comfy pillow to try to get some shut eye.  ...It might have worked if I weren't sleeping with Speedy, in a bed next to MV8r....it was like a bunkin party!  We chatted for a while like school girls....until we finally remembered we were running 13.1 miles in less than 12 hours and decided sleep was better than dishing about boys (just barely anyway).  Other than the 15 times I woke up worried that I wouldn't wake up with the alarm I got a good night's rest.

I woke up, ate drank my breakfast, brushed my teeth, got dressed in a flash, took some goofy pictures and we were ready to hit the road for the short block or so walk to the start line!!!

As I'm looking at these pictures, I can't even remember that morning.  I can't describe to you how different I feel now.  I honestly feel like that day was a turning point for me.  As if somehow 13.1 miles did something magical....or more likely, I was sleep deprived and don't clearly remember the morning!!  Neverthelesss....in my next post I'll try to recap the race.  (I won't do a good job of it at all, but I'm going to try anyway.)

Thanks for stopping in, come again soon!
:D