Monday, March 5, 2012

Little Rock Recap(or Sometimes it Just Ain't Your Day)!

    This should be short and sweet(or unsweet). Let's just say I did not run the race I thought I was going to or run the race I wanted to. I realize that I was not a full strength for various reasons but I still thought going in I would run better than I did. The weather was great for the 1/2-the race well organized-the course tough but managable(Austin was tougher). As they say-It just wasn't my day.
   Race morning was here-the sun was shining and the temps were just right. Walking from the hotel to the starting corral I truly felt like I could shake all the bad stuff off and run a good race-maybe not a great race but at least a good one. I was close to the front corral so I knew I would have a good start plus I saw the my grandkids Grant and Maggie so that had to be a good omen. It was just all up to me to run!
   And were off! I got a good start-no real hold-ups-just smooth running and having to break stride only a few times. I hit the 1st mi. at 7:28, mi. 2 at 7:31 and then I hit a wall! I'm serious-I never really hit a wall in a half but today I hit a wall-not with 2 mi. to go but at mi. 2. My legs-my arms-my entire body-just no energy. I tried to mentally push it but nothing seem to respond to what I wanted it to do.
     This is where everything starts to bother you. I threw my gloves away( i took my arm sleeves off before the race even started). I came so close to throwing my fuel belt and bottles away but that would have been hard to explain to Mary. I was going to throw it to her when I saw her at mi. 6 but of course I didn't see them to to late. As a matter of fact it was my son-in-law Jeff who saw me. Thank goodness he yelled at me and I saw him. It reminded me then that no matter how bad I felt I had to finish. My brother Stan and sister-in-law Tanya had driven down from Fayetteville to see Jessica(who was running the full) and I run. They were meeting me at the finish line so that gave me another reason to keep going.
    The rest of the race went pretty much the same-I would try to pick up the pace for as long as I could and then I would just keep putting one foot in front of the other one. Finally the finish line got here and Stan, Tanya, and Grant were there waiting on me. Once I actually looked at my watch and saw my finish time of 1:47:30 I thought as bad as I felt that was a good time. I've run long enough to realize that you aren't going to pr every race. I was disappointed that I didn't run the time I wanted to but I really believe I ran as good as I could this day.
     One really positive thing for me was I did see Jessica finish the full and she really ran a great race on a very difficult and warm day. The weather was good for the 1/2 but for the full it warmed up quick. She really ran good and I am so very proud of her( I hope this doesn't embarrass her)! I am running the full here next year-Yes I do have medal envy-Jessica's medal was bigger than her head!!!!
     Even though the race did not go as I planned it was a great race weekend for us. Running and Family-for me it doesn't get any better than that!

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