This coming July/August marks my 12th year of running. I cannot believe it has been that long but it truly has been. One of my goals for a while now has been to run a half marathon. Every time I started to train or think about signing up for one, something in life comes up that prevents me from doing it. Well, back in December some girls from work decided that they wanted to run one. After some research we came up with the Rock N Roll Half Marathon that was being held in Raleigh. We signed up at the very beginning of January and the time seemed to fly to now.
So last weekend we headed up to Raleigh to run. There were definitely butterflies going through my stomach. I just couldn't grasp the fact that we were about to do it!
That Sunday morning when we woke up at 4:30am, I quickly became wide awake. It was race day!!! Start time was 7am so we had to get up and get moving quite early! Not sure we were fully functioning when we arrived. The amount of people there ready to go awakened everyone and made it so much fun!
I was so excited to have Q there with me as well. I know he is not the biggest runner but he was determined to do this with me and I so greatly appreciated it! It was fun to be at the start line with him and share this excitement with him. We both kept saying to each other, "this is it! Are we really about to do this?!" 13.1 miles seemed like so far in my head. I had never run that far before. The weekend prior to the race I ran 10 miles and that was my farthest run. There was expected to be 12,500 people running between the half and the full marathons.
I can't begin to tell you how many races I have competed in in my life but it has been a lot. I was not as nervous for this one as I have been for many others in the past. I think there was more excitement and determination than anything. I knew I was ready and I knew I could do it, but all that was left was to actually do it! There are many things to think about during those 13.1 miles. There were so many sights to look at since the route went through downtown Raleigh and into some neighborhoods and parks. Unfortunately, there were a lot of hill; a lot more hills than we expected. Living on the coast, we do not have many hills so training was quite hard. In my head all I kept thinking was, "just make it to the top of this hill. Now the next one, and the next, and the next." Once I reached the 10 mile mark, I started wondering how the last 3 would feel. 3 miles seemed like nothing compared to what just happened but I think the hills started catching up to me and I felt myself slow. I didn't really have a necessary goal time, but I had been training at 8 min per mile or better so I hoped and prayed I could stick around that.
All I can say was coming up to the finish line was the best feeling. I began getting chills about a mile out because I knew that all I had left was one mile and I would have accomplished this great thing that I have been wanted to do for so long! I made the last turn and the finish line must have been a quarter of a mile down or so. When I saw that banner, I got chills again. I couldn't believe I had made it! The legs were starting to feel really heavy at this point and for the past 2 miles all I wanted to do was walk but I put one foot in front of the other and just kept trekking. The motivation from the people cheering was all I needed to carry me to the line. Then I looked up and saw my time. The clock read 1:52 but I knew we had started 7 minutes after the first guy so I cheered inside, "I did it! I made it at my goal time of 1:45!!!"
I was so excited!!! The first person I saw was this sweet lady who was handing out the medals at the finished. I walked up to her and she put the medal around my neck. I told her, "thank you so much!" with a big smile on my face and she responded with, "congratulations! You deserve this!" I know she didn't know me, but that was all I needed to hear at that moment! Now I just had to wait 15 more minutes for Q to come across to have someone to celebrate with!!! I wasn't sure how Q was going to do since he has had a hurt knee and couldn't really train. I wasn't sure what his time would be or even if he was okay. I waited behind the gate and scanned the finisher. I wasn't sure exactly how much time had gone by but I was trying not to worry.
Then he finally crossed and I saw him. His face was beat red but I couldn't tell how his knee was doing. There was a medical tent right next to where I was standing so he went and put ice on it and we sat down to celebrate. We waited for the girls from work to finish and seeing them accomplished their first half marathon as well was amazing. We all had done something so great and after 5-6 long months of training, we could now celebrate together!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment