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| Team World Vision, from Sherwood Oaks Christian Church, Bloomington |
I'll be frank. I never ever pictured myself doing anything like that before. I'm really proud of myself. I'm not in shape, by any means, and looking in pictures, I can see that I need to lose some significant weight, but nevertheless, I'm really proud of my accomplishment! I finished in under 3 hours, which I guess was my goal? I didn't really set a goal because I pretty much had no idea what to expect. I've never attempted anything like this before, and I didn't really have enough time to do the training schedule as I should have. I kind of just winged it. (Wung it? I feel like that should be the past tense of 'to wing,' but spell check tells me it's not. lol) And it worked out!
We met at the church at 5-stinking-30am and drove in the cold, cold darkness up to Indy. It was an incredible feeling to be in a group of about 10,000 people all shivering and in layers of super attractive running gear (sarcasm, y'all). It was an awesome sense of unity! I love things like that, where you feel so close to the people around you because you're all in the same boat, even though you know nothing about them.
Around mile 1, I broke away from the other 3 girls I was running with because I felt too congested in the mass of people, so I just started to run to the empty holes in the crowd. I'm glad I ran it by myself, because I could set my own pace, walk whenever I felt like it, and act a fool listening to whatever crazy music came up next on my stupid little ipod - anything from random music that Jason put on it, to opera, to Lydia's junior recital, to 90's Christian music. I have exquisite taste. lol
Around mile 2, the sun came out. I got a little toasty, so I threw off my sweatshirt (they donate all the clothes that people throw off during the race). That was maybe a bad choice, because I really needed it when I finished!! But oh well. Someone who doesn't have a sweatshirt at all will benefit this winter from something that I tossed aside.
Around mile 6 or so, John Robertson (College minister at SOCC) and I played the "I'll pass you, then I'll stop and walk, and you pass me, then you stop and walk, then I'll pass you...etc." game for a few miles until a sweet jam came on my piece-of-trash ipod, and I zoomed away! At mile 10, however, I started to feel like death. My hips were hurting, my knees were hurting, my ankles were hurting - everything hurt. I had been smiling the entire race because it was just so fun and exhilarating, and the people cheering us on were awesome!! But at mile 10, I just wanted to be done. Like John said, "If there had been a 'It's not too late to back out' bus, I would have jumped right on it!"
But then at the next water/gatorade station... there was... CANDY!!! I had the most delicious mini Reese's cup in the world. Just the pick-me-up I needed to keep on truckin'.
Brenna and Jason were there cheering for me (and for everyone) at Mile 13, and they took some sweet pictures of my gorgeous self (sarcasm)! I was pumped up, and I ran till the finish line! I think. There's a good chance I walked a little bit - But as soon as I actually could see the finish line, I for real ran! I ran hard! 2:57! It felt so good to be done!
When you finish a race, they throw a medal on your neck, wrap you in a space blanket, and shower you with food and presents! I got a sweet hat, a bagel, granola bar, banana, apple, gatorade, and chocolate milk. And I ate it all. Well, not the hat. But I ate all the food! I was so hungry!
I don't know if I'll ever run another half-marathon. At this point, there's really no reason to. I've done it. I'm not addicted to it. I don't need to beat my time. I'm proud of myself that I did this. Maybe I'll do it again someday. But I'll definitely need to train better and buy a new pair of running shoes. Mine are shot.
After the race, I could barely walk. On Saturday evening, I sang in our Studio Recital and by the time I got home, I was hobbling around like a geriatric. It was SO painful. My knees felt bruised. I iced my knees for a couple hours and slept real good. The next day, my knees were really bad still. Today, I discovered an awkward toe bruise on the very tip of my second toe on my left foot. I knew it hurt! Bruised, indeed. But I can almost walk without complaining again! Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be back on my game.
Thanks for reading, thanks for caring, and thanks for supporting!
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| Mile 13! Almost done! |
