Kim versus the Half Marathon: The Houston Half

Today didn't go as I had hoped.  There are two road I could travel right now.  One path leads down a road of negativity filled with tears, doubt, and all those bad things that fill my head trying to destroy my spirit.  The other path leads down a road of tears (cuz I'm still sad), perseverance, stubbornness, and all those things that make me want to pick up the pieces and try again.  I'm gonna go down that second path, if you don't mind, but it's still a struggle.  Thankfully, there is another opportunity on 12/12 with the RunGirl 13.1 to try to get this right.

I'll bottom line it for you and then I will take you through all of the events of today.  Sometime just short of mile 7, there were policemen that made us turtles take a shortcut.  In other words, we were not showing signs of finishing in the 3 hour time limit, so they cut our run short approx. 1 1/4 miles.  My initial instinct was just to stop running and walk the remainder.  My second instinct was to run to my sisters and brothers-in-law who were so awesomely out there supporting me and then have them just drive me to the finish line so we could cheer on our friend Melissa, in other words...QUIT.  My third instinct was to suck up the shame that washed over me and carry on.  I followed my third instinct, but with a little less skip in my step and a little less pride in my heart.

I had a hard time falling asleep last night.  I tossed and turned quite a bit allowing the nervousness to bother me.  Eventually, I drifted off to sleep, though.  I woke up at 4am.  The dogs were insistent they were famished - I had my doubts since it was about 2 hours before their normal feeding, but whatever!  I had a breakfast of a half a multi-grain bagel with Justin's maple almond butter and a banana.  My friend Jon had suggested drinking NUUN the night before, morning before, and then again after the run.  I had already had some the night before, so I drank some with my breakfast.  I got all geared up, and went to pick up my friend Melissa.  We found a parking spot in a $20 parking lot once we got down town.  I didn't care as it was close to the start/finish line.  I received a text message from one of my employees letting me know he couldn't go out of town, so I had to make a call to another employee trying to fix the situation (nice).  After a frustrating phone call, I think it got squared away.  Then, there was some parking lot drama, but I don't really feel like getting all into it.  Let's just say a mood was set.  I'm used to people being all happy and friendly on race day.

Melissa and I got in the LONGEST LINE EVER to use one of the 12 port-a-potties that were available (in the dark).  Afterwards, we stretched and headed to the back of the lined up crowd for the START.  This was Melissa's first Half, by the way.  =)  It was nice to have a friend there!

Craig providing "free" high fives

We started.  It seemed pretty uneventful.  I was just listening to my tunes and running.  The first few miles are always so hard for me...it's hard for me to get my muscles ready to cooperate.  They had water around every 2 miles, and as I mentioned in my last post, my plan was to walk through the water stations.  I did this.  I knew my family was planning on cheering Melissa and I on around Mile 3, so it gave me something to look forward to (that and I knew they were going to have a little cute bottle of G2 for me).  I was super excited when I saw them around 3.  They had a sign for me which made me smile, but I was wondering if they had made one for Melissa.  I figured it had to be on the back of my sign.  I greedily drank my G2 and then continued running.  Between mile 4 and 5, they had another water station and I saw an empty port-a-potty, so I jumped in and out as fast as possible.  I also threw back 3 bloks from my Clif's Shot Blok pack and grabbed a cup of water from the station which was just a head.   A little while later, I saw a dude coming back on the opposite side almost pass out...it was scary, but a medic was on it!  I saw my family again just after mile 5, but this time I didn't take them up on their offer of contraband.  I did notice there was no "Go Melissa" sign on the back of mine, so then I was thinking they were rude.  ha!  I found out later they had a whole bunch of signs.  They did actually have a sign for Melissa and they had a "free high 5" sign, too.  Brother-in-law Craig was really getting into it!  I think next time he will bring a sweat towel and some hand sanitizer!

I remember hitting the half way point and being disappointed in my time.  I knew stopping at the bathroom hurt me, but I had to go!  I also knew that I WAS HOT!  It was way hotter than it's been and it wasn't helping.  I just continued running regardless.  Up in the distance was the 6-10 turn around, but the policemen didn't let us get that far.  They made us U-Turn at the Memorial Loop.  At first I was confused like I had misunderstood the map, but then I realized what was going on and then well...I made a decision to stay in the race in body, though my spirit was somewhat broken.  My miles started getting slower and slower, I started feeling more and more defeated.  It took everything in me not to give up.  Melissa ended up passing me (again).  She must have been confused by this.  I explained what happened.  At some point I should have taken 3 more bloks, but I didn't.  I was just blah, so apparently I was showing me.  =/  When I passed my family after mile 9, I explained what happened to Linda and she told me that I was still doing it and to keep going!

It was a hard race - because we were moving around Allen Parkway and Memorial Drive, there were several hills.  We do a little bit of training for these in my group, but I hate them and I could feel these hills attacking my left hamstring.  Thankfully, my feet felt fine (despite me making the cRaZy decision to wear my new shoes).  A couple of times I got some all over body tingling - not sure why, and then my feet tingled too, like they had fallen a sleep.  Weird.  I got a little light headed once and made myself walk for 30 seconds.  I walked 2 or 3 more times for 30 seconds a piece during various times throughout the race - while going uphill.

When I saw the 13 mile marker, I booked it to the FINISH line.  Finishing song - Flo Rida's "Low"!

Oh and props to everyone who offered me up songs to add to my iPod for the race - it brought a special little smile to my face if/when your song suggestion made it to my ear!  I saw my family and Melissa right before I crossed the line.  That made me happy!  I was handed my medal right away.  Where was water?  None to be found by the race peeps.  Cathy gave me a G2 which I chugged and then Melissa and I took some pics like this one: 

Then Cathy, Jay, Linda, and Craig went to find a restaurant for us all to have lunch at while Melissa and I went to go find our finisher's shirts and some water.  We had the worst time finding water.  The first bucket we came to was empty.  We had to ask where we could get some.  Most races hand you a beverage when you finish a race, I'm just sayin'.  Eventually, we found some.  I got greedy.  I grabbed a Sobe Life Water 0, a grapefruit juice, and a water.  I quickly drank the grapefruit juice and the Life Water, and then I felt like I was going to be sick.  While I was getting us drinks, Melissa went and got our shirts.  We then headed to the car and we were thankful to change into our new shirts and to put on our flip flops.  We were also thankful to discover that our $20 parking lot was FREE!  Yay!

We met up with my siblings and their spouses at Grand Lux (one of my fam's favorites) and had a much needed lunch.

The weird thing is that my knees don't hurt AT ALL.  Both thighs are KILLING ME and then there is the left hamstring which is just a mess.  Maybe the new shoes fixed the knee issues?!  Hmmmm...

So, two paths to choose from and as I've mentioned...I'm gonna go positive here.  I'm not giving up.  I might not have done what I set out to do today, but I did something AMAZING and I'm going to be proud of me regardless of the outcome.  That's the path I choose.

Special shout out to Melissa for kicking booty on her first half!!!

Special shout out to Cathy, Jay, Linda, and Craig for their love, support, and hydration provisions!

Here are some more pics:

Jay is holding the sign

action photo

Jay is holding the sign





action photo

While at Walgreens buying drinks, Linda found me Granny Panties with pockets...she thought I could put my iPod in them while running.  Cathy was holding them up for the pic!  gotta love my family!  =P

Linda had her camera ready to capture the moment I opened my panties with pockets present.  =P