Oh...hey.
I was at a family graduation party yesterday and was reminded gently (and sometimes not so gently) that I had not updated the blog since our victorious and glorious 1/2 marathon on May 30. I guess I have had enough time to decompress by now. Hopefully. So lets try this:
The night before, my family and I headed out to Madison to hit up the marathon expo, which was pretty uneventful. We checked into the hotel, met up with Alyssa and her mom, and checked out the local Olive Garden for some cheap and abundant carbs. My brother D.J. told the hostess that Alyssa and I were twins (we do look alike) and that it was our birthday, so we even got free cake. Thanks D.J.! We headed back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub for a while, and tried to go to bed early. I could not fall asleep, I probably got about 2 hours that night. I was up at 4 to eat a full breakfast and tried to get back to sleep, but that was a fail, so I just laid in bed until 5:30. We left the hotel with Alyssa's mom at 5:45 and had no problem getting downtown and to the start in time. We warmed up and stretched like good little runners, hit the port-a-potties, and were ready to go! Then we watched the crazy marathon runners start. And then it was time for us to start!
The first 5 miles were easy. (Too bad there are 8 after that right?) Alyssa had to pee right away so we hit the first bathroom we could find, which caused us to lose our pace group, but whatever. They were crazy anyway. Those first miles were through campus, and it was hilly. We had some choice words for the people who plan the route on our way up the hill on Observatory, but we were on campus so we knew where we were and that helped a lot. We saw our families around mile 5.5, and that was great! I really don't remember the next few miles, but I know that at mile 7 I had to stop and pee, and that's when my body though we were done for the day. Sitting down was a terrible life decision. It took a lot of convincing to get my legs to believe that we still had 6 miles to go, but somehow they got the message and we kept chugging. There really weren't many people on that back half of the course, and it was getting HOT, and we were just not feeling it. When we hit mile 8, I got excited, because we only had 5 miles left, and that's less than an hour, and 5 miles is nothing, right? Ha.
We ran along the lake for a while, which was nice and cool, and then we looped around Menona Bay, which is where I really started to hurt. We saw 2 people being taken off of the course on stretchers, probably because of dehydration (it was 88 degrees and HUMID when we finished). Someone was blasting "Telephone" by Lady Gaga, and that was nice. People had their hoses out and were spraying us down, and that was even nicer. But I was not feeling it. I was trying to keep smiling, keep chatting, doing whatever it took to keep moving forward, at a decent pace. Because we only had 3 miles left dammit. And 3 miles is NOTHING. I should be able to FLY for 3 friggin miles. Finally, FINALLY we hit the one mile left mark, and I almost got excited, but for some cruel and evil and demonic reason, the asswipe route planners decided that the last mile should be UPHILL. People were just walking (or limping, or crying) everywhere, it was like a giant game of frogger, and I honestly thought I was going to puke up about a gallon of yellow gatoraid. But to our credit, we ran up that entire damn hill. And then just where I thought the finish line was...there was more hill. So we kept running. We heard our parents cheering for us, so we ran faster (showing off our studly skills....). And then....we ran up a little more hill. But then we were done! And I did not throw up, and we got our medals, and more water, and then we hobbled about looking for our families. Alyssa's watch said we ran it in 2:15.08 (not including potty breaks), and I was really pleased with that time. Our goal was 2:10, but seeing as it was hot as balls, and hilly, and our first 1/2, I can not complain.
We found our families, and drank more, and began to slowly move back to the cars. Stretching and walking back to the car took a while, but I stayed on my feet. We got back to the hotel, and I took a ridiculously long shower, and then was anti social and cranky the rest of the day, and ate 3 pieces of deep dish pizza for dinner. Because I earned it dammit.
I was really proud of us after the race, but I know we still have a lot of work to do before the marathon in October. I started Hal's 18 Week program this week, and I decided to do Intermediate I, because the novice ones looked like a huge step down in mileage for me, and I did not want to slide backwards. I know I have never run a marathon before, but I think I can handle it. We'll see how it goes. I leave for my counselor job at Loras All Sports Camp on Tuesday, so balancing work and training and dealing with random crises that arise will be an interesting and new challenge, but I'm up for it!
These last few weeks I have been getting back into my full training schedule, I was really sore after the 1/2. A few weekends ago I ran the girls on the run 5k downtown which was a blast! I had so much fun running with a great group of young women and their inspiring role models who did not care about time or splits or any of the other crap most "serious" runners care about. Despite the rain, everyone had a great time. And the medals are sweet. Shout out to my cousin Lauren who coached a great group of girls all spring! All I heard about for 3.2 miles was how cool "Mrs. Kaminsky" is, and how funny she is, and how awesome she is, and blah blah blah blah (just kidding Lauren, but seriously, they were quite enamored of you...).
Thanks to everyone who continues to support us during our training. Having you there for us (and knowing full well you will judge me if I just give up at this point), really helps! Keep the advice coming you crazy running people (I seem to be related to a lot of those types)....
Until next time!
Katie
