Finally, the second part of my Rock n Roll adventure. You can read my first part,
I Rocked... here. So, do you get it, I Rocked...and Strolled. Strolled instead of Rolled because I went slow. No, not funny. You sure? Ah, give me a fake laugh anyway! Ok, thanks for your pity laugh. Now onto the action.
After our night of giggling and not so much sleeping, we all woke up a bit on the groggy side, but since none of us were shooting for world class times (or even sub 2 hour times) it didn't phase us too much. We heard the rain pounding outside and Jason tried to get back into bed. Like that was gonna happen! There was some scrambling and delaying on the boys part, and we got out of there later than I wanted.
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| Ah, the "hotel hallway getting psyched for a race I didn't train for" pic. |
Stacie and I both really wanted to make the blogger photo, so we hustled down the Seattle streets with the rest of the swarm arriving just AFTER the pic. This, honestly, did not put me in a very good place. I didn't have to time to grab food yet either and the combo made me cranky (poor Jesse). We were able to capture a few pre-race photos...
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| Stacie and I (so glad she was here with me!) |
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| Jesse and I (love him!) |
At that point, everyone headed to their corrals and Jesse and I ventured out to find the bag check. I'll leave most of the before hand out, because like I said, I was cranky and not very friendly, but I eventually got something from Starbucks and made it back to our proper corral with time to spare. Waiting to start wasn't really that nerve racking for me. I hadn't trained, I wasn't prepared, and my body tends to fall apart easily, so I had no goals but to finish and have fun. I would walk when I felt like it and run when the urge struck. Solid plan!
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| Hello Start Line! |
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| It is almost starting! |
Now, I can't even recall what sounded our start, but I remember yelling when the announcer man asked who the first timers were. We set off, and since it was the start, I wanted to run to begin with. Unfortunately, I had originally put my finish time as 2:15 or something (ah, dreams) and that meant everyone around me wanted to go MUCH faster than I did. Well except for the group of power walking ladies who jumped up from corral 34. My new goal was to beat them! It was still surprisingly a little defeating to have som many people flying by me at the START of a race, but I then let go of all my competitiveness and just started cheering them on. That pretty much sums up the race for us. Jesse was staying with me the whole time, it would be a 13.1 mile date, and we danced, cheered for the bands, high-fived the cheerleaders, and tried to enjoy ourselves as much as possible!
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| Near the beginning so I wasn't hurting too much yet. |
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| The one HUGE hill... |
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| Yes, I walked it! |
Since I had never gone past 6.2 miles in race or otherwise, someone suggested taking pictures at all the mile markers past that point to document the momentous occasion. I was glad I did, it turned out to be a great keepsake, but it was hard to come up with different poses for each mile.
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| One more step, and I will have a distance PR. |
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| We missed mile 7 because Jesse had to take a potty break and I was solo for a while, including through the tunnel. But I did manage to run the whole time we were apart. Maybe I wanted to give him a challenge in catching up to me! |
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| My cheerleader pose (no, I was NEVER a cheerleader, just being goofy!) People did look at me a little funny at this point. |
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| At this point, I had been hurting quite a bit for some time (mostly my knees, Achilles, and hips) but around here, my pelvic bone really started to kill. Like, bad. It separates too far when I'm pregnant and doesn't go back together like it should, but I had apparently never gone far enough to piss it off during running because this was a new pain. Don't ask what I'm doing in this pic. Seriously, don't! |
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| There was a lot more walking then running on this stretch, but still felt like "rocking" out this pic! |
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| Kissing mile 12 goodbye. |
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| And finally, mile 13. Even though there was a cruel hill at the end, we tried to run it in. We even finished holding hands, ah. I'll try to post all the official race pics soon so you can see it. |
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| The taste of victory! |
I had never done such a large race, so at the finish, I was grabbing all the food and goodies i could! I may not have needed it, but i accepted a space blanket just so i could feel legit. We met up with the other bloggers and friends, which is always nice, especially when you have no family there. Most everyone was there already because we are so slow and even the marathoners weren't far behind. Chatting and retelling our heroic tales is always the best part of the race, besides finishing it of course. Some of the group was headed back to the gracious Chelsea's, but with our kids at home, we didn't think we would have time, but I really wish we could have!
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| Zoe, Me, Mel, and Chelsea (she is always such great race support.) |
Then it was off for super quick showers, packing up our room, and then saying goodbye to our hotel and bunk mates. Eventually, our stomachs called to us and we went to grab a bite at Claim Jumper where I had ribs and this little beauty...
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Well, I had to share this. But I think I earned it!
Final thoughts, I LOVED this race. Everything about it was great, even down to the fact that I didn't have to be before or during the race, so no honey buckets for me. The only downer was not having any one on the sidelines. Especially when I saw the kiddos with their "Go Mommy and Daddy" signs, I got a little sad inside. Solution, pretend every kid was my own! It worked, surprisingly well in fact. Maybe next year. Of course, I am very thankful to our parents who are nice enough to watch our kids so we can do these events together. Instead of a big getaway together, we just do a few mini race vacays together! Yes, we have already signed up for next year, and I do plan on training, a least some :) for that one. The Half is never going to be my race, but I think it will be fun to have this one be an annual tradition. I don't recommend running this distance with no training, but at least know it can be done. Thank you Rock n Roll for taking my virginity! |
