Race Recap!

Well, the good news is… I finished! The bad news is… I packed an entire duffel bag full of running gear, backup running gear and backup backup running gear and still managed to not pack a real camera. So, the only picture that I have of the race is this one that Kristian took with his iPhone.

I took the liberty of adding some helpful information with MS Paint. You know, like which person is me. And what I was grumbling about at the time. I don’t actually know when Kristian took this picture. But trust me, I was grumbling about the hills at that point.

Did you know that Worcester has a lot of hills? Worcester has a LOT of hills. And, I swear to God, they all go uphill and none of them go downhill. I felt like I spent 13.1 miles running up a down escalator. I should have realized this by reading the elevation profile of the course. But, apparently, I am not so good at reading elevation profiles. Or Worcester is lying about its hills. Either one.

Do you know what else Worcester has? A lot of crazy drivers. Do you know what the race organizers didn’t do? Block off any streets. That’s right, we were running in the streets along with all of the regular traffic. They had us running right along with the traffic. I ran through not one but two rotaries. With cars driving along beside me. It was slightly…. terrifying.

We joked the night before that Kristian should drive along beside me and yell out encouraging things. Little did we know, he actually could have done this. I have a feeling that I will not be running this race again. I have this crazy need to not be splattered like a bug on a windshield. I’m high maintenance, I know.

Speaking of Kristian, there is no way that I could have finished this race without him. Not only did he drive all over Worcester to stop at key spots and encourage me, he also ran along side me when things got tough, brought me water and ibuprofen and was just generally my rock. He also constantly reassured me that there were plenty of people behind me, that I just couldn’t see them all and that I wasn’t going to finish dead last. Sometimes I wonder how I got so lucky that a man like this wants to marry me. In a past life, I must have saved a bunch of orphans from a burning building. Like, 50-60 of them. Orphans with giant eyes and adorable lisps.

And how did I do? Well….I finished. I started out with lofty goals. Goals that I slowly dialed back throughout the race. At first, I wanted to run the entire race, stopping only at the water stations and finish with a personal record (PR). Then, I just wanted set a PR. Then? I just wanted to finish.

I finished in 2 hours and 40 minutes, which is about 8 minutes slower than my first half marathon. I actually consider this a win, because I came up lame around mile 10 and had to walk for a mile or so. And, there were a lot of damn hills. I probably shouldn’t have finished the race, but I am sometimes more stubborn than I’m smart. To be honest, I’m often more stubborn than I am smart. I continue to pay the price (my foot is still killing me, I think it might be Plantar Fasciitis), but I think that I would have a lot of regrets if I had just walked away. As long as my foot recovers quickly, I’m fine with my decision to keep going.

I finished the last few hundred feet strong (adrenaline helped me forget how much pain I was in) and, with the exception of my foot, I’m not all that sore. This helps me to feel like I’m a better runner than I was three months ago. And that’s something to be proud of. At about the halfway point of the race, I was poised to beat my goal time of 2 hours and 30 minutes. And that’s with all those damn hills.

I’m going to give my foot a few days to heal up. If it doesn’t, I’ll go see a doctor. Apparently, Dr. Google doesn’t count. When I’m fully recovered, I’m going to start running again. This time, I want to train for a full marathon.

Why, yes, I am insane.