Saturdays race was more noteworthy than many past races. This one is right up there with the
Pumpkin Man Tri last October, that one sent me to the moon.
I woke up to rain, unexpectedly, and I was 20 minutes late picking
Becky up because I couldn't decide what to wear with the sudden weather change. Finally we make it onto the freeway and my stomach was in knots until we slid into our parking spot perfectly near the start line. At which point my stomach began to churn with more nerves and the restless need to stand in line for 40 minutes to utilize a rancid port' a potty. One that had been used by well over 1,000 nervous runners before me. Sick.
We stroll up to the start line with literally 5 seconds to spare as they count down the gun start. I slipped on the our new custom tether and we reassured each other that we could totally handle this race.
We were off and running all the while enjoying a little light conversation about Becky's husband going shirtless through airport security when I checked our pace. I had told Kday to meet us at Sugarhouse park at around the 1 hour mark and I quickly realized that I had way underestimated our pace. I tried to take advantage of the down hill areas in the beginning of the course, so Becky and I were humming right along at a 10 min flat pace. For us, that's smokin. So when we made it to mile 4.5 at Sugarhouse in 40 minutes the worry that Kday would miss us became a reality. I spent the next two miles worrying that he might wait around too long at the park and miss the finish. I slammed a
Roctane Gu down and I was feeling superb. Until mile 7, at which point I started to bonk and by mile 9 at Liberty park I was doing everything possible not to lose my cookies. At this point my chest felt like 5,000 lbs and my vision was starting to become blurry and splotchy -yikes... talk about the blind leading the blind!
It became a necessity to slow our pace down to about a 12 min mile which really had me discouraged. We had been 2 min/mile faster than I had expected and I really wanted to keep that pace up if possible. My heart thought it possible by my body performance was rapidly waning. I knew another Roctane would feel awesome but I also knew that I wouldn't be able to keep it down long enough to benefit from it. So we slowed for a bit until my stomach settled and I caught my breath.
Then the state street hill from hell began. Our plan of attack was to focus on making it to one stop light at a time. Our pace still slower than before, around 11:45 min mile... we ever so steadily pushed ourselves up this piddly little hill that feels like K2 after 11 miles of running. My vision was still hit and miss of a blurry mess but I we just kept running. Right at the peak of the hill before we turned on to South Temple - Becky said, "
do you want to walk?" I laughed with what little breath I had to spare and said "
Becky, you know I don't walk during races... besides, we didn't run all this way to walk at mile 12." She smiled (probably much against her will) and agreed with me. Poor thing probably knew she had no choice :)
By this point she was practically dragging my fat keister down So. Temple and I was totally blown. My legs had no juice left and my emotions were all over the place.
I started to cry. Shizzle sticks, what else is new? I would cry for about 3 seconds and then try to muster more strength and pull myself together. Then the tears would come again for a matter of seconds before the cycle repeated itself. Becky said, "
I wish I had something inspirational to say but..." I said, "
I know. I need to stop crying and just run." I picked up the tempo again because I told Becky we needed to finish under a 12 min mile. So we rounded the corner in front of the Union Station and finally arrived to the entrance of the Gateway. The streets were lined with cheering spectators and although I was prepared for the crowds, I had no idea just how much their applause would affect me. I couldn't keep it together for one more second. I started crying as I felt like every single person there was encouraging me to finish the race strong. My body awareness was completely forgotten and without effort we sprinted through the cobblestone path to the finish.
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| This is where I almost ate it :) |
Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a little Buca baby on her daddy's shoulders. Pig tails pointed in two different directions as she scoured the crowd to try to find her mama. I yelled for her and smiled at
kday with tears in my eyes. I was so happy he was there to see us accomplish such a challenging race. My legs were numb at which point I almost ate asphalt as I waved with such joy to see my family and I lost my footing. That would have sucked. We made it though, we crossed the finish and I couldn't do anything but sob. Becky carried me through this race. I absolutely couldn't have done it without her. My hero.
Hero's can be each other's hero's right?
At one point near the beginning of the race I looked up ahead... and down the road for at least a mile in front of us were bobbing heads filling the street. Runners, shoulder to shoulder flooding down the beautiful roads of Utah, and behind me for a mile the same view. It was such a profound moment to realize the grandiosity of the phenomenon I was a part of. I tried to describe the incredible view and sensation to Becky but I was at a loss for words. Eleven thousand racers all together at this point before the marathon and half marathon course split up. It was sensationally profound.
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| Each other's hero. |
Our finish time according to my Garmin (which paused for potty stops) was 2:24:42. An 11:06 minute mile pace. Holy smokes. Thats super rad for us. Almost 2 min mile faster than our first half marathon and a 30 min faster overall time. No wonder I was about to have a stroke on State Street. We're awesome. Just ask us :)
