Yesterday was quite a day. I didn’t sleep great Saturday night. It was warm and humid, the windows wide open, even with the fans on, wasn’t conducive to sleep. It was after 1 this morning before I really fell asleep. It was good that I set the alarm for 4:30 to be sure to be up in time to get ready and go to the race. I had everything laid out before I went to bed, so getting ready wasn’t bad. I had my “dry” clothes in the trunk of the car (since there was no bag check). It didn’t take much to pin myself together and get myself ready to go. Took little more than that (oddly enough) to get everyone else up around and ready to go. Toast for breakfast… mental note, Adam doesn’t like butter on his. And out the door and we were off. In the rain.
I was right… I got to run in the rain. I put my blister prevention cream on my feet. I put my sports bra on inside out so the seams were against the shirt rather than against my skin.
I thought it was maybe appropriate to wear my South Africa Vibrams (the ones I bought in Knysna) to do the race in. Running for Barundi fresh water in my South African Hobbit Feet? Made me smile. The rain wasn’t too cold. The held the start until the lightning passed. I got pictures of me in my Figment outfit. I got to talk to a neat guy dressed like Mickey Mouse. He has done several runDisney events and is going to do the Dopey challenge in January. He told me not to stress and just run that race to have fun. It was great. He did his first Disney half having never trained for anything. I can do this, right?
The horn went off at 7:15 (precious 15 minutes late after the front and the lightning passed) and we were off. I started strong despite the humidity.
The first two miles were flat and relatively easy. About mile 1 I picked up the credit card holder someone dropped on the road. As I passed one of the police cars manning the route, I tossed it to the police officer. I hope whoever dropped it was able to find it. There were lots of credit cards on it.
Amandya left me in the dust by about the first half mile mark. She took off and was running harder than she should have given she hasn’t trained at all. I didn’t actually expect to see her again until the finish line. I caught up with her at mile 3. She was falling apart. Nearly in tears. She didn’t want to come in last. She didn’t want to quit. She was hurting and hitting her mental wall way sooner than she should have.
We did the rest of the race together. Side by side, stride for stride.
The hills were horrible.
The wet and humidity made it even worse.
The view of Ladybird Lake was wonderful. Running for the water, beside the water, in the water… kind of interesting thoughts spill through your head.
Austin loves to decorate for Halloween with spiders.
Being chased the last two miles or so by the medics and the trucks picking up the course was even worse.
We kept pace with the last 10 people in the race.
Adam started backward through the course… he usually does… It always makes me smile seeing his easy strides. He walked in with us through the last mile. I don’t know if he will ever know how much it means to me for him to do that.
Amandya crossed the finish line, 1828 out of 1829 finishing. She wasn’t last. I made sure she wasn’t last.
I was.
My feet hurt. They hurt so bad, the whole front half of both feet. I’m giving up the idea of my hobbit feet for distance races. It isn’t worth it. I love the for walking. Training and racing, not so much.
Only my feet hurt. Otherwise I feel incredible. I was incredibly demoralized for a while. I finished last. In my head I know that someone always has to be last and I know that I did my best AND finished the race in sufficient time (had it been Disney) that I would not have been swept.
This morning, rice and chili for breakfast… today I’ll get my methotrexate shot that I didn’t remember to get yesterday today as well as my allergy shots…. I’m not training today, but I’m actually looking forward to getting my butt up in the morning tomorrow morning and getting back into my training.
A Figment Of Fitness 