My Adventure

Obviously I survived and finished the half marathon on Sunday.  I don't think anyone ever knew that when I joked about hoping medics would be on-hand, I was actually serious.  I was nervous about what might happen.  We all know our bodies better than anyone, and I knew I'd had some scary moments.  I have what I call my "episodes" where my heart palpitates too quickly, I get cold and clammy, and things start appearing fuzzy.  This has happened for years, but not frequently.  And recently I've been experiencing what I'm pretty sure is exercise induced asthma, which is a bit disconcerting when you don't know what to do during an attack.  It's new to me and kinda freaky.  So although I try to be a good sport when people don't believe I'm as slow as I am, or argue that "oh no, you won't take that long," or look embarrassed for me when I admit I usually stop to walk a bit after just two miles, their disbelief gets OLD.

My time was 2:49.  That's epically slow, I know.  But I'm still pretty happy with it.  It's only a few minutes longer than I was shooting for - 2:40.  Combining a mixture of running and walking, I wanted to run about 9 and walk 4.  I'm pretty sure that's what I did.  The first seven miles were great!  I was loving life!  I ran my fastest 5 miles, my fastest 10K, and at the halfway point I was at 1:16.  If I had been able to keep up that pace, I would have finished in 2:32.  But then came mile 7.  Good ole' mile 7.  Everything went downhill from there.  As I took a step past the 7 mile marker, I felt a shot of pain.  It felt like someone jabbed a large needle into my hip.  I actually gasped.  Perhaps some profanity followed.  I thought the run was going to be over.  But I walked a bit and soon figured out I could run a short distance without it hurting too bad.  Sadly at around mile 11, one of the runners was taken away in an ambulance.  It was about this time that I felt another shot of pain, but I was so close at that point it didn't matter.  My time had suffered tremendously, but I was happy knowing I was going to finish.  I was seriously fatigued and dealing with the asthma the last couple of miles, but Alan met me at about 12.5 miles and ran with me cheering and encouraging me on.  I don't think I ever thanked him for that. 

It was a great day, perfect weather, awesome company, and I did something I never thought I could do.  I wouldn't want to do another one unless I'm feeling 90-100% healed with absolutely no hip pain.  What I'm more interested in now is running faster 5 and 10Ks.  Just for funsies.


The "Team":  David, Alan, Karl, me, Ashley, and Heather - they were so great and so much fun.  And they kicked butt.