What a day! I couldn't sleep last night with all the excitement and finally got up around 2:45. AM. Oof. I had some water and an orange and a clif bar. I got dressed, brushed my teeth, fretted about forgetting something, walked around the room trying to relax, and headed out. I got on the bus around 3:30, arriving at the staging area around 3:45. Then I waited. And waited.
The wait had a fun moment; the moment I got an email from Bill. He ran a half today in support of me! How cool! I couldn't believe it! I didn't think he would, seeing as how it has been probably 6 weeks since he ran last, and his longest run to date was 8 miles. But he did it. And his last minute words of encouragement were perfect. Now I wanted to beat his time of 2:15 :-).
I tried to meet up with Dan and Vicki, but it didn't happen. I walked down the long road with thousands of other people to the start area and found my corral. I got as close to the front of it as I could. I know that chip time matters, not gun time, but I figured the more people I could start in front of, the better off I'd be. The announcers said there were 28,000 people there. TWENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND!!
The wheelchairs started and then the first four waves, all to fireworks. Then my wave got up there and bam! away we went! It was 6:00 or so.
(You can't tell from the picture, but that's the start line.)
We were off! The run was so much fun! There were characters along the way, bands, DJs, you name it. I particularly liked the green army man from Toy Story near the top of the overpass around mile 11, telling runners to "take that hill" and "complete the mission". We ran through Epcot and the Magic Kingdom. We ran through Cinderella's Castle! Fun, fun, fun.
My feet felt like they were asleep right around mile 12, but I knew I could press on. Now there are knots in my arches, left foot worse than the right (as per usual). The same problem I have been having. Definitely going to look into new shoes. Anyway, my chip time reported at the end of the race has suddenly been revised to one second longer, but ...
I BEAT MY GOAL! Yes, that's right! I came in under 2:30!! I wonder if I could have done better if there hadn't been thousands of people around me. I'll find that out in two months at Seaside. But for now, I am going to pat myself on the back and revel in my accomplishment of completing a half marathon in ...
2:28:16
That's some nice bling, eh?
My friend Kenny was at the finish line with his girlfriend cheering me on. I know Kenny from high school. He moved in 1988 and I haven't seen him since. Thanks to facebook, we reconnected, and mostly because he started running around the same time I did. I was following his progress. Since then I feel that I have gotten to know him.
I heard someone yelling "Molly!" I turned to see who it was and give them a wave or a thumbs up. I'd been doing that all race. I put my name on my shirt so people would cheer for me, and they did. Well I realized that this time it was Kenny. He was there, not too far from the end. I gave him a big wave and smile. I was summoning the last ounces of strength that I had to make a big push for the last half mile or so. When I saw him and waved I had just a little more oomph. Awesome! I couldn't have asked him to be in a better place. And it was so neat that he would come out for me.
He took my unofficial finish photo. I did have an official one done. Depending on how it turns out, I may get it. So I hung out with him, Courtney, Courtney's parents, and Courtney's best friend for a few minutes. Then I went and found Dan and Vicki (who didn't have a very good race) and then headed back to the hotel to shower and chill.
The race sent texts to people who signed up and also had a live online tracking. I had just gotten my medal and wasn't even out of the chutes when Monica sent me a congratulatory text and Cathy and Mike sent congratulatory emails. I am honored that they had gotten up early to cheer me on.
The best part was that Bill called then too! I was so overcome with emotion I started to cry! It was such an incredible moment. I can't even begin to describe. And to share it with Bill, as best as I could under the circumstances, and knowing he did a half for me, was too much!
So here is a screen shot of the final stats.
In case you can't read them, there were 21,953 finishers (9550 male and 12403 female).
My chip time was 2:28:16 and my gun time was 2:53:12
My overall place was 9642/21953, my gender place was 4162/12403, and my division place was 727/1973. My age grade is 46% (but I don't know what that means).
My split times were as follows:
5k 35:40
10k 1:11:18
15k 1:46:50
My average pace for the race was 11:15, according to my Garmin, but that said I did 13.22 miles in 2:28:45. So I don't really know what the mile splits were officially, but by the Garmin they were:
11:27, 11:41, 11:30, 11:30, 11:05, 11:52, 11:20, 11:22, 11:07, 11:25, 11:10, 10:54, 10:25, and 1:57 for the last 0.22mi (an 8:51 pace). How's that for finishing strong!! That is also remarkably consistent! How did I do that?!
Training, I suppose.
I called Coach Mark this afternoon to share the news. He asked how I was doing (he forgot the race was today) and I told him my about my foot problem. Then he asked when the race was and when I told him that it was this morning and I SMOKED IT! I think he was about as happy about it as I am! He is very encouraging and was thrilled to hear it. He said he was going to call Coach John right away to let him know, too.
Not too bad for someone who could barely run for 60 seconds nine months ago. Now I can run more than 13 miles. Without a break. Woah!
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