Friday night, we decided we would try to go to bed by 10:30. It ended up being more like 11:00, but we were still pretty good. Then, Sara's dryer (which just so happens to be right outside of her room) decided to go all satanic on us and start smoking and making crazy noises! So her poor roommate was trying to deal with that as quietly as possible, but to no avail. We probably didn't get to sleep until around midnight.
Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early at 6:30. As you have already seen from our pre-race post, the weather Saturday morning was not really very conducive to moving, much less running 13.1 miles. Sara did borrow some pants from her roommate, but I decided to tough it out with my shorts. Luckily, I had brought two hoodies, so we did use those to keep us somewhat warm. This is us FREEZING before the race. Seriously, I was so cold, I couldn't even talk right. My mouth wouldn't even form the words.
Here we are as we took off at the starting line. Why we look so happy, I do not know. That is our friend Nathan who used to work with us at the children's home to my left in the red. It was cool to get to catch up with him and he ran with us for the first 4 or 5 miles.
**Side note** My parents and Sara's mom and sister came to watch us, which was AWESOME. They took all of these pictures. They saw us off at the starting line, caught up with us for a couple of the miles in between, and of course, were there to celebrate with us at the finish line. It was great!!
The Actual Race
Ok, I know you hear a lot about adrenaline during times like these. All the stories we had read said that adrenaline would play a big part on race day. I didn't really believe that until now. Sara and I had said that we would try to run the first 3 miles or so without stopping, then take short walk breaks after that. 3 miles is the most we had really run without a walk break up until then. Well, somewhere between mile 5 and mile 6, we were still running and feeling good...it had to be the adrenaline. And luckily, the heat had begun to radiate through our bodies, so we weren't so freezing anymore. Well, we kept running until well into mile 6, but things took a decidedly different turn when we made our way into Cameron Park. You see, up until that point we had been running a relatively flat course. But miles 6-10 brought about a lovely scenic and HILLY part of the course, one that can only be described as torture. It didn't help that as we were entering the park, the front runners in the race were already coming out...yes they were about 4-5 miles ahead of us. RIDICULOUS. That really helped inspire us...HA!
Well, amazingly, we made our way through the hills, and emerged victorious, anxious to run the last 3 miles on some flat ground. We figured it would be smooth sailing from here on out. Pretty stupid of us. Somewhere around mile 11, the 4 ibuprofen I took before the race (sorry, Dr. Ben!!) started to wear off and my foot was throbbing. And THEN the nausea set in...for both of us. The last 2 miles were by far the hardest - I think we both thought we would have to stop and throw up. At this point, it became a no-win situation...if I was running, I felt like I was going to be sick, and if I was walking, my foot hurt like a thousand times more. So we pretty much just sucked it up. We knew by this time that we were going to make it with plenty of time to spare, so we did actually take it easy, especially the last mile or so. It kind of sucked because we could have had a much better time had we just ran those last miles.
But no worries...the best feeling in the world came when we turned that last corner and saw the finish line, probably just a quarter mile away. I could see our parents and friends yelling and screaming and taking pictures. We decided the four of us (me, Sara, and her roommates Audrey and Christy) would hold hands and cross together. Cheesy, I know, but we had been through a lot that day.
So, in those moments, a ton of things were going through my head, but mostly an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment, despite my aching body. We crossed the finish line at 2 hours, 45 minutes, and 36 seconds, which is not a great time, but it felt great to me. 3 months ago, it would have taken me that long to run 5 miles, so finishing 13.1 in that time was pretty amazing.
I wanted to take this time to point out some pretty wonderful things/people that really helped us to get through these last few months, and race day itself:
Each Other - There is NO way I could have ever done this without Sara. Even though we were not always the best at keeping each other accountable (haha), we stuck it out and encouraged each other when we didn't think we could do it. Sara is an amazing friend and the ONLY thing I will miss about all this running is our great talks along the way. Love you!
Student Foundations - These are the people who put on the Bearathon. They had students stationed at every mile marker, yelling and screaming and encouraging us. They also had food and water, which of course made a huge difference. We could hear the mile markers sometimes before we could see them, and it helped a lot to know it was coming up.
Sara's AWESOME roommates and friends - Sara's roommate Christin and her friend Angel were complete Godsends on race day. Christin worked from 11 pm - 7 am the night before, but instead of coming home to sleep, she came to support us. She and Angel basically stalked us during the race, popping up at least every other mile to encourage us and cheer us on. They even made posters for us! It helped us SOO much!! At the finish line, they were joined by Sara's other roommate Becky and her friend Larissa. They cheered us on until we finished. Thanks so much!!
Our wonderful families - For all the encouragement during our 3 months of training, and a big thanks to my mom and dad, and Sara's mom and sister, who drove (almost 4 hours for my folks) and braved the cold to see us off, to catch up with us around miles 8-9 (even though I hear they enjoyed a tasty breakfast in between!!), and to of course watch us finish. They also sent me a super yummy Edible Arrangement at work Friday, which was a big hit at the office. We are pretty blessed.
ABC/Dairy Queen - I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the importance of Bachelor/Blizzard Mondays(currently known as Dancing with the Stars/Dairy Queen Mondays) to our training regimen. I mean, sometimes that was the driving force behind our Sunday runs. :-)
You, our amazing blog readers - Truly, I am not sure we would have finished had we not started this blog...talk about accountability. I didn't realize how many people read this blog until the last few weeks when totally random people on Facebook and at work have asked me about my foot and wished me good luck on the race. It means a whole lot, and I am so glad we finished so I don't have to be ashamed in front of all of you. Haha. :-)
To finish, I am posting a few more pictures from the race. They are pretty disgusting pictures of me, but I decided I did not mind, because hey, I am a marathonist and that is the price we pay. :-) Just don't go showing them to your friends.
After the race...my face pretty much says it all. (FYI - after this picture we pretty much broke that trailer hitch when we put like 15 people on it...haha)
Thanks again, everyone!! Sara please add anything I forgot as well as any pictures you got that I didn't.
