Free and Easy Down the Road I Go.....

Today was awesome! My first (not last) half marathon. I woke up at 4:30, had two cups of coffee and a bagel, got dressed, and headed downstairs at 5 to catch the shuttle that is supposed to be running every 15 minutes. Here begins the CALAMITY that threatens to send me into a panic. I was to meet the Runner's World group at 5:45 for group pics. After about 45 minutes and some chatter about the buses running an hour and a half late, I phoned our room and asked Ronnie to come down and drive me to the race. I said, "do you know where you are going?"...he says, "NO" and I start praying. Knowing that streets would be closed and we would be running into 19,000 runners, I was fearful that wherever he would be drop me would not even be close to the start line, and I wasn't prepared to exert myself before the gun goes off! And, here's the God Wink.... He (not having much of an idea of where to go) drops me RIGHT in front of where I need to be!

Now...I'm walking around in the dark, along with 19,000 runners, getting ready for the opening ceremonies and I hear someone call my name. It's BRONDA and MIKE! Wow. I fall in line with them at the 10 mph pace line, not where I should be, but I'll just fall back when the gun goes off. I feel a tap on my shoulder and it's BRIAN RUSSELL! Ok...so the two people I have mentioned in my previous blog post are right here with me. God Wink numero dos!

Opening ceremonies start, prayer, moment of silence, star spangled banner, GUN. It takes forever to get moving. There are so many people that we're just packed in like sardines. The aforementioned runners blow past me and I try to find a pace. I stop at block 3 to use the portapotty. I regret the decision to leave my ipod at home. I struggle to know if I'm pacing correctly. At mile 2, I hear one of my run coaches holler at me. Stelly ran with me, imparting all his coaching wisdom for about 5 more miles. We saw lots of RW folks, including Kathy and Bobby. It felt good to have familiar faces in the midst. Stelly is always saying, "slow down, stop and stretch, eat, drink, be merry. Today was different. He said something like, "uh...this is a race....go faster!". Ok....
There were tons of power aid stops, water stops, and sideline entertainment. There was a saxophone, belly dancers, dj's, costumes, Darth Vader, Paris Hilton, John Wayne, and gobs of families sitting on their lawns with dogs and children, giving cheers and high fives. Bloody Mary's looked to be the beverage of choice for most onlookers. My fav sideline treat by far was the Jagermeister shot tent! No kidding! Jager shots! I didn't partake.
At about mile 7 or 8, I hooked up with Jessica from RW. She's super cool and I enjoy running with her. At mile 9, I felt like my toes on my right foot had broken OFF. Ya, ...bad. Jessica sped up and I held back. The last 3 miles went by s-l-o-w. I was hyped up though and dancing as I ran. One spectator told me I obviously need to ramp up my speed if I had enough energy to dance. There were some turns on the next 2 miles where sudden gusts of wind seemed like they'd sweep your legs out from under you. The last half mile was awesome. The announcer was yelling...if you want to beat 3 hours you have two minutes.....etc, etc. I busted it out. Crowds were yelling like crazy. The announcer came over to me and said, "how many miles did you run today?", and handed me the mic. I said, proudly, 13.1!!!. I got my medal!

I found Mike and Bronda first and then wandered around for awhile looking for Ronnie. In the Runner's Corral I grabbed a water and a couple of cookies, but bypassed most of the food because I was on a hunt for the beer tent. Guess what?? No beer tent!!!!!!! What! So...time to leave! We went to Bricktown and waited for Chellino's to open.

I woofed thru a couple of flautas and some Corona Light.

So...a funny side effects of running....I was covered in salt when I finished. gross.

I'm so excited about running the next race. Even with ice packs on my legs, I'm thinking about the next one. :)