Big Lake 1/2 Marathon

The short version:

Yay! We did it! I did it! I finished a half marathon – I ran 13 miles and lived to tell about it!



The long version: (and I won’t be offended if you skip this—it’s mostly for myself to look back on in the future and track my many improvements:)



The good stuff:
-It was a beautiful run—winding along Lake Winnipesauke
-The weather was beautiful
-It was so cool to be one of over 1500 runners

The mistakes:
-I wore a long sleeved light weight capilene shirt and long pants (I thought it was going to be cold, raw and perhaps rainy but it cleared up and we had lots of sun and fair weather)
-I didn’t wear my fuel belt (I thought 8 drink stations would suffice)
-I didn’t train seriously enough

The stuff working against me:
-I was cursing my Reeve gene (the one that makes me sweat like a fat man in a sauna and makes my body temperature run hotter than most people at any given moment of the day or night.)
-The race was in the mountains, which means that I was running uphill at least half of the time
-I was running into the wind the first few miles and then the wind died leaving nothing to cool me off

The stuff I’m thanking the Maker for:
-Gu
-The people at mile 9 who lovingly gave me a 17 oz. bottle full of ice cold water and probably saved my sorry life
-That my sweet husband was there waiting for me at the end and somehow had the strength to let me lean on him while I walked

The stuff I learned:
-Wear as few clothes as possible. When we got there, I was all chilly and I was looking around at all these people in these tiny shorts and tank tops and I was wondering what the heck they were thinking. Somewhere along mile 3 I came to the understanding that they were much smarter than me.

-I dehydrate quickly. Even though I thought 8 drink stations would be plenty, now I know that I need to be sipping water the entire time. I couldn’t picture it before, because I had never been in a race, but now I know: you’re running and some people are gathered together with paper cups with about a half a cup of water in it. You grab it as you’re going by, take a mouthful and drop it in the trashcan and then you’re done for another mile and a half or so. It takes all of 10 seconds. That’s just not enough for this body.

-Runners apparently don’t care if they get their cups in the trash can. I was so surprised to see hundreds of cups all over the ground. I guess the volunteers are used to it and know that’s part of their job – to pick up all the cups littered on the run. I couldn’t do it. I had to carefully put it in to the proper receptacle. In fact, there were parts where the wind threatened to blow the cups into the Lake, so I was stepping on all the cups as I ran so they wouldn’t blow as easily. Silly, I know, but I couldn’t stop myself from caring.

-The people in the back (which is where I ended) are much nicer than the people in the front (which is where I started). Their goals are different: personal best/competitive vs. finish the race – just please let me finish! The people in the back were all congratulating each other and talking to each other even though we were strangers. “You’re doing a great job!” “this is farther than I’ve ever run before!” “Congratulations!”

-I would rather run the 13 miles again than be as sick as I was after the race was over. When we got on the bus that took us back to our cars, something snapped and my body revolted. For the next 3 hours I was wishing for unconsciousness. In these pictures you see here, I was pretending to be happy. Really I wanted to puke my insides out and die. I didn’t want Matt and Liz to worry about me, but I guess they worried anywayJ I knew Jake would worry enough, he knows the many flaws that my body has to work with all too well. History suggests that if something can go wrong, it probably will with me, so as I was catatonic on the bed in my sweaty clothes and salty body, he was surfing the net to see what he needed to do for me. So sad and embarrassing, but it is what it is. Sigh.



-I would do it again utilizing what I’ve learned and now I can cross something new off my life list/mondo beyondo list. Yay me!