Saturday morning I headed over to my cousins' house to meet up with my Aunt Illene and my two cousins AJ, 15, and Philip, 13. After loitering in the kitchen for a while-- filling water bottles, snacking on cookies, munching some potato chips, and chatting-- we said goodbye to the parents and hopped in the car. Armed with his driver's permit, AJ took the steering wheel and we headed north towards Casper, Wyoming. Four hours worth of Illene's favorite game "Name This Band" later, we arrived in Casper, met up with Illene's friend Mary Beth (the first leg of our relay and the woman who began this whole adventure), checked into our hotel and headed back for a pre-race pasta dinner. There we met a man from Atlanta who's goal is to run a marathon in all 50 states. He began five years ago and has run 25 so far. He plans to run 9 this year alone. I racked his brain for advice for a first time marathoner (such as myself) and he told me to make sure I was having fun. "Get your mileage in and don't worry about speed." He recommended not running more than 4 times a week lest it feel like work. After we'd had our fill of salad, bread, pasta, chicken, sausage, and fruit we headed to our hotel to watch I Am Legend (great movie!) and wento bed at 10pm.
I woke up at 5:30 Sunday morning, put on my underarmour shorts, black running shorts, my triple sports bra (strap em down!) and my bright pink Girls On The Run shirt-- in honor of Illene. (The back reads "So I run like a girl... got a problem with that?") I stood in front of the mirror for a minute or two, debating whether or not to put on makeup-- ended up siding with vanity and put a little on, grabbed my water bottle, popped a few IB profen (shin splints) and headed to the car. We found our way to the convention center-- which looked like a giant pizza hut on top of a hill-- and met up with Mary Beth. As we pinned our numbers on our shirts and our "relay" signs on our backs, I was surprised by how calm I was. I'd been telling myself this was just another training run and apparently my self-delusion was working. We saw Mary Beth off at the start and drove to her 3 mile point on the course to cheer her on. Then we headed to my exchange point at mile 6.5. It was only when I began to stretch (yes Dad- I stretched before my run) did I feel a pang of nerves. I got positioned and soon enough saw MB in her baby blue running down the hill. We exchanged a double hand high five and off I went!
That run was the first time since I've been home that I've run alone and so I was nervous about my pace but luckily ever since I started swimming I've had a solid awareness of pacing. All along the way my cardio vasular was decent (my one major hill was a little rough, but still fine) so that was encouraging. The only thing that went wrong was my feet. Around mile 2.5 they started to go numb and then by mile 3 I felt like there was a sharp rock stuck in my right shoe. I stopped to walk three times (once for a swig of water and twice because of the pain in my foot) which wasn't ideal but so it goes. The course was really pretty-- most of my part was running on a path along the Platte. I was so thankful to be the second leg because it was already really warm by that time (and we all know how I feel about running in the heat).
I didn't get an actual split of my time but I figure I ran about 10 minute miles with walking and all. Our team placed 7th out of 19 teams and ran the whole thing in 3:55:11... an average of about 9 minute miles. After we rested up, took some pictures and ate (I didn't mention the FEAST they had at the finish line for us), we headed back to the hotel for some hot tubbing and swimming. Then we showered and headed towards Greeley for a family reunion. The whole experience was a lot of fun and it was great to have a little experience running in a race. I'm glad I didn't take it too seriously cause it wouldn't have been worth the stress but I do have a lot of work to do between now and October. I'm pretty nervous about how my body will hold up (my shins hurt as I type this... two days later) but all in all I'm excited.
I'm gonna run that marathon gosh darn it.
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