Kim Versus the Half Marathon: Dallas Rock 'n' Roll

I woke up at 4:30am, having only gone to bed 5 1/2 hours earlier.  ugh.  At least I was able to get in 8 hours the night before!  I had hydrated my heart out all week long and gave myself one last opportunity Sunday morning with a Nuun tablet in my water and some oatmeal as breakfast.  I left my friend Julie's house in Fort Worth at 5:40 to go pick up Melissa at her hotel.  At 6:30 and we were off to The Finish Line as we were instructed to park there.

The highway was jacked up, yo.  What should have taken us 30 minutes to achieve, took us well over an hour.  We weren't alone in this, so we weren't panicking about missing the race or anything, but it left a sour taste in our mouths prior to starting.  Rachel was ahead of us somewhere - we never were able to meet up with her.  Once we finally parked, I had to stop at the porta-potties - it was like a desperate situation as in there may or may not have been dancing going on to avoid an unfortunate incident.  We then finally made it onto the shuttle bus and arrived somewhat near the starting line around 8:15ish (for the 8:00 race).  We made one more pitstop at the porta-potties and then walked up to the 15th corral just as it was walking towards the start line.  Yes, it was like that.  I guess in a way it was a good thing we didn't have to do a whole lot of standing around as it was 51 degrees at the start.  Brrrrr....

I felt great from the get-go.  I had a huge smile on my face and I was just trying to absorb stuff - you know...trying to be a good blogger and whatnot!  I have to say the cool air was welcomed, especially after Saturday's beautiful but scorching upper 80s.  Around 1.7 miles, I was approaching the 2nd band and they started playing a new song - I felt like it was just for me as it was one of my all time favorites - Brown Eyed Girl.  I could just imagine my friend Laura and I squealing "We are brown-eyed girls" as we used to do in college.  another smile.  Shortly thereafter I hit mile 2 and got slapped in the face with a very steep hill.  I tried to run up it, but then realized halfway up it that I was killing my energy, so I got smart and walked the rest of it.  Once it was behind me, I began running again.  I saw some people (in tutus) dart across the road in front of me because they wanted to take a picture of some spectators.  I looked and sure enough - it was my caped crusader friend, That Pink Girl (only she was now Pink Gurl) and some of her super hero super star spectator friends!  I, too, darted across the road (only after looking both ways first since this was not a blocked street).  It was around 2.5 miles or so and I was so happy to see them.  I hugged TPG and got a picture with her and carried on.  another smile.  3 came pretty fast, then the 5K mark.  Started having some stomach issues and needed to find a bathroom STAT which brought mile 4 on pretty quickly.  There was a line and I knew I couldn't wait until the next set of bathrooms, so I was forced to wait in the line.  The entire process took me 6 minutes.  not smiling anymore.

I resumed running - more hills.  I started getting that all too familiar pang in my right side, then in my left.  The side stitches were returning.  When this happened during my training runs, I called it quits.  I couldn't do that here.  I made it to about mile 5 and then I decided to walk for a bit.  We were in an area called Highland Village.  If you are from Houston, I would liken it to River Oaks.  Beautiful older LARGE homes with amazing landscaping lining the streets.  Such a pretty picture, so serene.  I often joke that I run slower than most people walk.  Well during this time, I was walking faster than I run.  smiling resumed.  The winding through this area ended around 6.5 miles and I began running again.  Side stitches were very much still an issue.

I saw TPG (she took my pic as I approached) and her gang around mile 7.5 and they were such a welcomed sight.  I complained about my problem.  TPG said she would walk with me for a bit and explained to me that I'm breathing too shallow and need to take deeper breaths.  She also had me put my arms above my head to help with this.  We parted ways with a promise to see each other at the finish line and I resumed running.  My sides felt a bit better.  smiling and running.
I hit mile 8 and there was a female police officer that made me chuckle.  She was encouraging us to keep on going and telling us we were doing a great job.  She then added that what we were doing "is not considered normal behavior."  So funny.  smile returned.

I hit mile 9 and I started to feel the twinge of pain in my calves - charlie horses were coming to attack.  I tried to fight them off, but I was forced to return to walking as they were less painful that way.  Intermittently I tried to jog here and there.  By mile 10, my calves were screaming.  Whenever I tried to run, my toes curled and forced my feet to sort of buckle inward.  It was a very weird feeling.  At 10.5, I couldn't take it anymore, so I pulled over and stretched my calves using the curb.  I then tried running and made it about a quarter of a mile before they started screaming again, walking resumed.  so not smiling, like not in the slightest.

At mile 11, there was another band playing another favorite song of mine - Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" (Ahhh....Glee).  I wasn't going to give up on my PR - I had it, I knew I had it...I just had to keep trucking along no matter what!

At mile 12, I desperately wanted to finish out the race running.  I tried and failed.  About a quarter of a mile before the finish line, TPG jumped out from the sidelines and came to my rescue.  She said encouraging, beautiful words, and ran with me until we hit the 13 mile marker.  She sent me on my way to finish and I ran out the remainder with a big smile on my face.  I crossed the finish line with tears in my eyes.

I was emotional because I came back from an injury (pelvic stress fracture) and PRd - despite it being a tough race with lots of pain.  I was emotional because there was one amazing friend who ran with me and encouraged me and then when I crossed the finish line, there was another who had finished almost 45 minutes before me ready to give me a hug.  I was emotional because I hurt..

After getting my bottle of water and medal and hugging Melissa, we went to get a banana, a Snickers Marathon bar, and a bottle of Cytomax and then we went to go find TPG.  We got some pictures and then we headed out.  My calves were screaming so badly, I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to drive. Shockingly, once I got out of my shoes and into my flip-flops, they started being a little nicer to me.

Melissa and me:  Half Marathon finishers!

Pink Gurl and me (she's my fave super hero)

Melissa and I went back to her hotel to shower and change and then we went with her boyfriend, David, to eat at Chuy's (we were FAMISHED) before heading back in our respective cars to Houston.

Official Time:  3:18:03 (a PR of over 6 1/2 minutes)
Finishing Song:  "Rock Star" by Nickelback  (kinda fitting for a Rock 'n' Roll race, eh?)

Next stop:  Tomball's 5K Bunny Run on April 9th (totally feeling a PR for this race)

On a side note - I need to do some research on these charlies horses.  I used to think they were as a result of improper hydration, but that cannot be the case as I consumed mass quantities of water and Nuun all week long.  I wonder now if my issue is from losing too much salt.  I am a VERY sweaty girl when I run.  Perhaps I need to start carrying salt tablets or green olives?  ha!  Anyone else out there suffer from this?  Tips appreciated!