This past weekend, I ran in the Frederick Running Festival. I did the "Nut Job challenge", where I ran the 5k the Saturday evening (6pm start) and the half marathon on Sunday morning (7am start). At the 5k, my first mile was the fastest I've done in over a year, at 13:29 pace. I finished the 5k with a pace of just over 14 minutes- also an accomplishment. I was sore, but pumped, and my guy was there for me, which made it that much better.I just watched the finish line video, and it's not something I'm going to share with the general public. I also have another new goal of looking more graceful at the finish line of a race..
So, Sunday morning, after only about 4 hours of sleep, Hal, Curtis, and I went to the starting line of the half marathon. There was much adjusting of shoes and removal of gravel from said shoes, nervous porta-potty visit, and spillage of the sports drink. Hal declared that he would stay with me for the duration. He was afraid, apparently, that I wouldn't make it before the course was pulled up. The Frederick Running Festival people made many warnings all over their emails and website that the course had a strict 3 hour 30-minute limit and that if you fell behind, you'd be forced to finish on the sidewalks. For about 10 miles, we kept up a pace of under 16 minutes. (a 16 minute pace is 3:30 finish time.) Alas, officer-not-so-friendly decided to stalk us around mile 9 or so and tell us that we were too slow and if we fell behind we'd be forced to the sidewalk. The cone collectors were behind him, pulling up the traffic cones that defined the runners lanes. I was deflated, and pissed. There were several women around me, also doing their best to get to the end. I'd talked with two of them and their determination was inspiring. Yes, I wanted my damn medals, but I also wanted them to have their medals. For one, I knew it was her first half, and I suspect it was the other lady's first as well. I know the triumph of completing one's first half marathon. I wanted them to have that experience, untarnished.
I started to slow, and started feeling all of the aches and pains my brain had been ignoring to that point. 2.5 hours in and I started to give up. We walked on, but we only walked. I couldn't/ wouldn't make myself run. We went through two more water stops. The volunteers were lovely. I almost cried; I was so grateful to them, their encouragement, and their help (damn was I thirsty!). Then, we got lost. I called Curtis to ask him the next directions, which he conveyed to me just fine. We kept going. Then, we. got. lost. And I mean REALLY lost. We were in some kind of industrial yard, in the middle of downtown Frederick. What? Yeah... After another two phone calls, an angry text that wouldn't send, checking Google maps that didn't help, and a very helpful text from Curtis, we finally got back on track. We'd lost probably 10 minutes in that little adventure. The few people that were still behind us got ahead of us. I was angry, and emotional. It wasn't pretty. But we found the fairgrounds, and the racetrack, and I jogged across the finish. And later I discovered I made the Frederick Running Festival's FaceBook page, labeled as the last finisher. However, if you check the results, there were two other people behind me. Kudos to them for finishing, even though others gave up on them.I got my damn medals. They're in my purse- I wanted to show a few people at work. They were very excited about my half marathon finish. And you know, as pissy as I felt at the time, I am proud I did it. I was so disappointed in myself up to now, knowing how much more in shape I was and how much better I did before. This was what I needed to get some confidence back. I really had to choke back tears at the finish. I didn't believe in myself at all. Now I know I can do it, even if I'm really out of shape. Training for Baltimore starts now. I will be awesome in October.
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