You may remember that I was planning to do the full marathon at the San Antonio Rock & Roll event. Well, due to various factors (mainly the snarky knee), my training was totally lacking for a full. I was hoping that I'd be able to do the full, but I had to face facts - the training just wasn't there. No matter how much my heart wanted it, my brain just said no.
Once I made the decision to drop down to the half, I had to decide what my goals were going to be. Should I try for sub-2? Should I try to go for a PR? Should I try to totally crush it and go 1:45? Or, should I just try to finish, knowing the knee might limit me to walking in places?
Well, I made the goal to just enjoy it and see how I could do. I had those time goals in mind, but what I really wanted was to just do it and get what I could get. I talked to Coachie on Saturday afternoon and she gave me pace goals for each segment. They seemed reasonable for what my training has been. BUT, perhaps very telling, I didn't do the math to see what would be my finish time if I hit those paces.
Sunday morning was like any other morning - early wake-up call by Liam. (I found out later that Liam and daddy went back to sleep on the couch until 7:30 -- so awesome!) I got myself ready and drove downtown to the park and ride. (I will DEFINITELY do that again - it was so easy!) After meeting up with Kris and Stephanie, we got the gear bags dropped off, stopped at the ladies room, and then made our way to corral 7 with only a few minutes to spare before the gun went off.
We started walking with the herd and Kris and I realized that we had to pee again. We happened to see a bank of porta-potties and jumped out for one last break. Perfect - no need to stop on the course. We hopped back into line somewhere and then Kris looked at me - Titanium was playing on her iPod. We teared up, grabbed one last hug, and then we were off.
Kris and I had pretty much the same plan - start off easy, then pick it up, then REALLY pick it up. As usual, the atmosphere and other runners made it hard to stay easy for the first 3 or so miles. We focused and kept slowing ourselves down to "easy." Neither of us wanted to blow up later because we got caught up in the moment. It felt really great to be running next to Kris in a race again. It's been a pretty good while since we've been able to race together like this. We just chatted and laughed and reminded ourselves to enjoy the moment.
We made it to the hills by Trinity University and we just kept on chatting and laughing. We saw one of our co-workers and her children - always great to see their beaming faces on the side of the race course! (Later, she told me "Y'all looked like gazelles going up that hill. Everyone else looked like they were dying!" How great is it to be compared to gazelles?!)
By about mile 4, I had realized I'd probably need to make another stop at the porta-potties. UGGG! I told Kris that I might have to stop but that I was going to wait as long as possible. We happened to pass a bank of open ones about mile 7. YES! I yelled at Kris that I was making the stop and to crush the rest of the race. I popped in and out and thought that maybe I'd be able to catch back up to Kris. It was almost time to start picking up the pace anyway, so why not try?
I could just barely see Kris in the distance among the runners so I kept going for it. I think I caught up to her about mile 8. She looked at me and said "If you can catch back up to me, you need to be running faster." I told her "I know. Go crush this thing!! I love you!" and took off. (Usually I'd waffle about leaving her, but I knew that she needed to keep to her plan, and I needed to keep to mine. I didn't want to mess her up by making her go too fast.)
Right as I left Kris, Lady Gaga's "Teeth" came on. The first lines are "Don't be scared. I've done this before. Show me your teeth." I took that as a sign, bared my teeth, and just kept running! It was pretty perfect. I don't usually get to race with music, but this was going to be an "enjoy the moment race" so I decided to make a playlist. It ended up having so many great moments, so I'm very happy I did.
The rest of the race, I just kept up the pace. There were some moments that I wanted to slow down, but I realized that I'd be close to my PR of 1:54:52, so I kept on the gas. I went into this just wanting to finish, enjoy the moment, and see what I could do. When that 1:54 was in sight, I knew I had to push.
I made it through with a 1:55:21. Less than 30 seconds - SOOOOO close. I'm sure it was the pit stop at mile 7. But you know what?? I'm totally ok. Hitting that PR would've been great, but now I just have even more drive. Following the plan Dawn gave me got me to the finish strong and in a really good time. I'll consider this race a huge success! =)
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