The last few days have been a blur. It's like my life was on fast-forward and it hasn't slowed down. I am looking forward to tomorrow when I will get a chance to relax.
On Friday morning Miguel, the kids and I flew down to southern California. We spent the day getting ready for the funeral and I had a bit of respite while getting a pedicure. I was supposed to go with my mom but we were too late so I went solo. There was food everywhere I ate like a starving girl. I just didn't care. Friday evening was the viewing; I went first and then Miguel went - I didn't think it was a good idea to take the kids. Come bedtime I was exhausted.
Saturday was the funeral. My family does not mess around when it comes to saying goodbye. It was a beautiful service for a truly amazing man and I shed more than a few tears. Marek said goodbye to Grandad, despite being a bit confused and asking to see him. Military honors, with Taps played, were delivered graveside and again the tears flowed. What an emotional day. We had a whirlwind late lunch with the family (and I just kept eating like it was my last meal) and then left late for the airport - we weren't sure we'd make our flight. Thank goodness we did.
We walked in our front door at 7:30pm and all of us were cranky and tired. I got all my stuff together in the midst of feeding the kids dinner and getting them ready for bed. I had my fingers crossed that I wasn't forgetting anything. My water intake and sleep had been really bad the days prior so I wanted to get to bed early to try and make up some lost time.
I got up at 5:30am today. I am on day 3 (I think) of my period and thankfully it's already slowed down so I was pretty confident I'd get by without a changing of the guard. Anyway, I got my gear together while I ate a bowl of cereal and had some coffee. I left at 6:10am to meet my friends, Jackie and Laurie, two mommy friends that did the race with me. Here we are pre-race, Laurie on my right and Jackie on my left. They are so awesome and supportive. Sheesh, I look tired.
After killing some time in line for the porta-potty and then standing around stretching for a while, it was finally time to start! I was maybe an 1/8th of a mile behind the starting line and good thing because as soon as I started jogging my laces came untied! I never double knotted them because I wasn't sure how to put on the timing thing and I figured I'd re-tie them later. I ran to the side and tied them. I would have been VERY annoyed with myself if that had happened
after I crossed the timing mat.
I've read so much about going out too fast so I really took an easy pace. I was mostly running between a 12 and 13 minute pace. The run is an out/back in Golden Gate Park followed by an out/back along the ocean before finishing back in the park. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, a beautiful mid-60's day with almost no wind to speak of.
Very early on I felt like I had to pee again. Darned coffee! Around mile 5 the course passed back by the starting line and I had a big debate with myself if I should hit the porta-potty again. Ultimately I decided that 1, I had a long way to go and if I feel the urge to pee now, it might be painful later and 2, I'd feel a whole lot more relaxed if I peed. So I ran up to the potty (fortunately no line at all) and ran out when I was done. Whew, much better.
I carried on and felt really good. I messed up my shot-blox eating plan and ate 2 every 2 miles instead of every 3 miles. I realized my mistake at mile 8 when I saw I only had four left. So I made a new plan to eat 1 at mile 8 and then 1 at miles 10, 11 and 12. I had an AccelGel for post-race and knew I could eat that if I needed it. Running along the ocean was beautiful. I was prepared to start to struggle between mile 9 and 10, where, on my training runs, I usually had to start in with heavy doses of self talk. But not so today, I think it was the atmosphere. I definitely had the aches and pains but all the people kept me distracted and kept me going. Oh, and I also started to feel the need to pee again. Thank goodness I'd peed at Mile 5 because there were NOT porta-potties to be had. I knew I had a few miles to go but figured I'd be fine as I hadn't been drinking a ton of water, just a few sips at each water-station while running.
Around mile 10 a speed walker passed me. Hmm. I did not want to be passed by a walker. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I know some of those speed walkers are way faster than my run pace! This woman had super long legs and I muttered something to myself about her being a gazelle. So I checked my pace and my heart rate, both could use a nudge so I picked up the pace. She caught me several more times and each time I sped up. The fourth time she caught me I said "enough" and really sped up, maybe to an 11:30 pace and didn't see her again. It was all just fodder to keep me motivated.
I was SO happy when we made the final turn inland and toward the finish line. The last 1/2 mile or so is a slight uphill and I was happy to engage my quads. The last 1/4 mile I was feeling good enough to do a sort-of sprint to the finish line. I picked out a few people that I wanted to pass and just used that as motivation to run! And whew, there I was. And ouch! I just ran 13.125 miles and I felt it. Though, according to my Garmin, 13.32 miles. I guess that means I didn't cut all the corners I should have. My Garmin average pace says 12:24 and I am super happy with that.
Laurie and Jackie are both speedier than I am so they were waiting there to give me big congratulatory hugs. And Laurie took finish line pictures! Thank you Laurie!!
I love this first one because you can see the shadows of people cheering in the bottom left corner. So cool. Also, subtract a few minutes from that finish time since I didn't start when the horn went off.
And a close up of my happy self at the big finish!
After the hugs and a few big sighs of relief (and a quick trip to the porta potty) we walked around and took in the scene. I ate my AccelGel and drank water. They had some mats and foam rollers so I took the opportunity to roll my thighs a bit, such a good pain. And we got some good stretching in before heading for the shuttle back to the car.
It was a great day, somewhat surreal and super rewarding. I ran the entire time and reached my optimal plan. You might remember
I had optimal and bottom line plans. They were:
My optimal plan:
Finish in less than 2 hours, 45 minutes.
My bottom line plan: Finish.
Well, take a look at my official chip time!
Thank you to everyone who supported me while I pursued this goal. Ultimately it was my two legs out there for 13+ miles but I couldn't have gotten to the starting line without you!
So these last couple days I've been thinking a lot about the event. I have a couple should've and could've thoughts, I should have pushed myself, I could have run faster. You get the idea. I know why I didn't, I was nervous about finishing, nervous about being able to run the whole time. I'd never run a half-marathon and didn't know the course and I erred on the side of caution. And, I suppose, if I were in that same situation I'd do the same thing again. Which leads me to - Next Year! I am very likely going to do this again next year and am excited at the prospect of finishing faster. I know I can. 
That's nice isn't it? No reason I can't do better next year. And that's a good feeling. Also, I'll know the course, I'll 
Back to today, which is a day off from the gym. Tomorrow I'll run, probably 25-30 minutes. I need to keep my running up to some degree because of the 10k in April but the focus for now will be on the bike. Speaking of that, I have a test-ride planned for this Sunday afternoon with Melissa (we're doing the Cinderella Classic together). I just mapped it out on mapmyride, a tad over 33 miles with three category 5 climbs (that's the lowest category). The Classic is 66 miles with two category 5 climbs so this Sunday's ride should give us a good sense of where we are.
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