P.F. Chang's Half Marathon - January 17

Ok, I dislike running. It's a chore and I normally don't enjoy it. So I usually get asked why I do it? Well, its a necessary evil of triathlon and someday, I keep telling myself, I will have that moment - runner's high or something - where I like running and it becomes less of a chose. Still waiting.

So Robin was turning 40 on race day and wanted to do her first marathon. The gullible friend I am, I signed up for the marathon with her and then set out to find a training plan with the least amount of training required. I faithfully went to track practices and even attempted to run on other days. I raced a lot and did mountain biking and other stuff which I believe should help my running. Yep.

Robin conned me out to run with her one day because she believes I'm not training enough. Pffft! So we head out and she goes at my pace (a good 3+ min/mi slower than her pace) and we tough out 12.5 miles in about 2:30. I'm feeling ok about this but then continue to not train. I did about 7 days of the Dec runathon and then maybe another 5-6 miles between then and race day. I'm ready!

So Friday, Robin and I head to Phoenix to do some damage at the expo and pick up our RV for the weekend. Damage was done and I am enjoying my plentiful supply of new running shirts. We raced across town (what should have been a 20 min drive was more like an hour) and picked up the RV. We headed to the RV park for the night and got things set up. Mea was flying in and we decided to make a quick trip to Costco before we got her. 12 mins - and we got more stuff than planned. The zen of Costco. With Mea collected and all of us starving we headed back to Apache Palms to drop off the car and change. We hopped the light rail to Mill Ave and headed to P.F. Chang's. They are sponsoring the race afterall. So we all get our drinks and head to our table. 1 small & 2 tall PF-X's later and I'm pretty happy. We head to a local drinking establishment where we proceed to be hit on by college guys and dance. I also made it through 2 more beers. I feel awesome. We get to the light rail and realize we'd bought all-day passes but it was now past midnight thus rendering our previous pass invalid. We finally get back to the RV and go to sleep since we have spa appointments in the morning. I'm dizzy but rarely get hung over any more so I don't worry about it.

Get up in the am and we're getting ready when I start not feeling well. So I make a visit to the RV toilet...great to sit in the shower be right next to the toilet? I feel better so we head out. Halfway to the spa I start to feel sick again (I'm driving mind you). Robin dumps out her bag of clothes and I manage to puke and drive. I'm multi-talented. We finally get to the spa, right on time, and I end up switching with Mea so I could sit around for an extra half hour. So I sit around in the bathroom and make friends with the spa toilet. Fantastic. I head to my massage and all I can think about is "please don't puke on the table, please don't puke on table." There were a couple iffy moments, but the massage was fantastic and I did actually feel a bit better. I grabbed some water and ended up falling asleep on one of the chairs. After I woke up I hit the shower for a few and then ordered some lunch. Food was a godsend by that point and I really did feel a ton better. We headed out to go get Mea's packet from the expo and buy more stuff!

We headed to dinner after that, but as expected everywhere was packed so Mea and I ended up having dinner by ourselves with some tasty bread & pasta. Got back to the RV and got our stuff together for the next day.

Race day is here! I'm oddly not nervous because I had no goal. I didn't train, why should I expect anything? I just wanted to beat last year (2:53) on improved fitness alone. Secretly, I hoped to get closer to 2:40. The purple posse assembled, took pictures and then headed downtown. Shortly after arriving the gun went off and we started moving up in the corral chain. Our group stayed together for 4 minutes after the start. :-) I stuck with a 4 min run/1 min walk and hoped that would be good enough. Let's just say, I wasn't moving super fast (my 5k was ~38 mins), but I was feeling good. Relaxed, I could breath, my HR was holding pretty steady. This went on for the first 10 miles. At this point, I was starting to see that 2:40 was a real possibility, and if I was a little faster, 2:30-2:35 could be in my future. This is the part of the race where my legs magically become lead. I kept telling myself to turn my legs over faster but I couldn't. Last year at this point I just gave up on myself and started walking more. Not this year, I wouldn't let myself quit. I just told myself to slow down a little - keep pushing - but I could back off just a bit and I was going to make it. I kept this up until we turned on to Rio Salado and I was within .5 mi of the finish. At that point, I literally couldn't keep my legs moving so I walked the last minute of a run interval and started running on the next beep. I think, I ended up running the rest of the race although I wanted to stop badly. Back with .5 to go I saw I had 2 mins to make 2:40 and knew I couldn't do it. After the fact, I realized that my pace actually picked up on the runs in the last 3 miles and I was moving faster than I thought at the finish. I crossed the finish in 2:42:45....exactly 11 minutes faster than last year - and I felt better longer.

I grabbed my water and medal and got in line for my picture. I tried to keep moving my legs since as soon as I stopped I could feel them tightning up. I got through the food line and met up with Jess & Andrea and finally made my way to the UPS truck where I smartly chose not to sit down to change my shoes this year. Last year I could barely get up and I wanted to cry. I trudged back to the RV with my legs starting to stiffen up - I didn't realize the extent until I tried to climb the steps into the RV and then later try to sit down!

This was a good race, better than last year because I finally felt ok. I had a few moments where running was fun and I considered doing more of it. Those were fleeting. I think the massage the day before did actually help because my shoulders weren't as tense as normal and that probably helped my breathing quite a bit.

So here I am, 3 days post and I can sit down with holding on to walls, bars or door frames for dear life. Monday was painful but I think Tuesday was worse. Got a trail run this weekend so we'll see how I far. Now to start not training for the Mt. Lemmon 1/2 in Oct. I think I'm taking the day off after that race!