Sunday 20 May 2007

Colorado Colfax Half-Marathon - Done!

What a wonderful event and a wonderful day. Yesterday I was all keyed up and worried about what kind of attitude I was going to have during the race. I went to church last night, and just calmed right down. The calm never left me, thankfully.

I decided to enjoy the event. I was determined not to worry about my time, and not to get competitive. I gave myself permission to walk if I felt like it, stop at the porta-potties if I needed (a whole other story there!) and just soak up everything that was the race. And that is what I did. I stopped to use a rest room in a park we passed through... I walked through all of the water stops... I felt just fabulous for the first 8 miles. At a couple of miles, I passed the Cathedral and saw people heading to early Mass... I said a quick prayer of gratitude that I could be out doing this crazy thing! At about 9 miles, I had a stomach ache and felt horrible - and then I heard a friend from the sidelines! My friend Holly came out to greet me! I actually stopped and talked with her and stretched. It was a good thing, I was really tired at that point. My stomach ache did not go away until I stopped running. I don't know what that was about, but it hurt!

In the last mile, I had a new downloaded song on my iPod which was just so so so appropriate, I played it over and over and over. It was "Save the Last Dance for Me" by Michael Buble - and I danced and sang. I am sure I looked like a nut, but it kept me going up a really steep hill at the end of a 13.1 mile course... yikes. I do not know what possessed me to download that song yesterday because I have never listened to this guy before in my life, but I am sure glad I did!

My daughter finished about 15 minutes after I did... she totally enjoyed herself too. I am so glad, she didn't train at all and I was worried about her. She called a few minutes ago to see how I managed the stairs in my house... ow! I am hurting and so is she! But I have all day to do absolutely nothing - I think I will go so far as to order pizza - after I wake up from my nap! I just am so happy to have completed this thing. It was great.

The bad thing? When we got to the race start, nice and early as we should have, we heard the announcement that they had only ONE porta-potty. I am not kidding. ONE. There was a line like you can imagine. The guy ahead of us said that even if everyone used the toilet for one minute, there was no way we would even get in the john before the race started. Imagine the excitement when we saw porta-potties being unloaded from a Ryder Rental Truck.... they found 5 of them, and they were already full of s****. They smelled so bad we were actually gagging. I honestly thought I was going to throw up. But I used the thing and got to the start line in time. My daughter passed, and then had to stop at 7-11 along the way... and lost about 10 minutes there. The other bad thing? remember the race organizer who told me they would have gu at every water stop? I saw not one packet of it, but I had stuffed some in my bra.

Other than that, I can't think of enough superlative adjectives to describe how I feel right now. This course was hard! We ran through three different cities, all the way across the Denver metro area. And there are major HILLS here! Thanks for all of your support, I took all of you with me. You have given me great advice and support over the last few weeks and it made a difference!

THANK YOU!

12 comments:

Randy - Maniac #788 said...

Congratulations again Mary...you did great...especially with all those hills....that bathroom thing is the pits they never seem to have enough of them...not at the right places anyway.....your time was great...and I'm glad you decided not to get competitive..it's just good to finish that first race. Now you can work on a PR....will there be others in the future or is it too soon to tell?
You might try soaking in a cold water bath...and if you feel really adventursome add a bunch of ice to it...it will take the soreness away..guaranteed.

Marcy said...

YAY!!! I'm so thrilled for you!!! It sounds like you had a fabulous time!!! I'm so happy that you decided to just soak everything in and enjoy! You've got plenty of time to improve PR's ;D Now you're definitely a doer instead of a dreamer! ;)

Hey, whatever gets you to the finish line! If you looked like a nut so be it hehe!

CONGRATS!!!!

ws said...

Congrats on finishing the half marathon and enjoying it (even if you didn't love every step!). I second the suggestion of a cold bath - it is shocking at first, but it aids tremendously in recovery. Enjoy your nap and in a few days the stairs will get easier...

Trudging said...

You go girl

J~Mom said...

Seriously on the port a potty? OMG I would have died!! I am the pee queen and have to go about a 1000 times before a race!! I am glad they brought more in!

Congratulations on a great run!! I listen to songs over and over again when I need them, too! Whatever gets you there!!

YAY!!!!!!!!

Michelle said...

Awesome job, Mary!!

Love that medal! Very pretty!

Sorry about the port-a-potty disaster. That sounds awful. I am so thankful that they had TONS of clean ones at my last race.

I too listen to the same song over and over while running, if the mood fits. My entire 5-miler today was done listening to "Read My Mind" by The Killers. :-)

Debbi said...

Once again, congratulations. Love your medal! The Penguin says to wear it everywhere you go this week – you deserve it!

By this morning, you're probably feeling much, much better. Whaddya wanna bet you'll be running again before the week is over?

You're a champ!

Adam said...

Good job.

Sue said...

Well done! That's a great achievement and to be able to enjoy it as well, is tremendous!

Not so sure about the cold bath - bbrrgh.... let us know if you had one and whether it helped.

Well done to your daughter as well.

runliarun said...

How great for you. I think it's wonderful you could just go out, enjoy it, go with the flow, do it for running's sake and nothing else.

Congratulations!

Unknown said...

Great job on the run and congrats!

Yes, ice baths certainly do help elminate muscle soreness.

If the race director doesn't provide a proper number of port-a-potty's and doesn't provide gels when they say they will, you might want to think twice about doing one of their races again. Great job toughing it out!

Unknown said...

Way to go!! I'm sooooo happy for you. Not only did you finish, you had fun. YAY!!!!!!!!!!! Beautiful medal too.

One porta-potty? And then 5 more that were full already? That is just plain wrong.

Hope you are feeling better today. I'm kinda' achy myself right now...