The half-marathon story!
Here is the story of my first half-marathon (with Team in Training) for those of you who haven't heard it yet.
First, allow me to indulge in a little back story. I never was big on running at all in my life. A few years ago I signed up for a couple of 5Ks so that I would have a goal for getting into shape. It sort of worked-I did manage to get more exercise in-but I wasn’t serious about training. I only ran maybe 2 miles a few times a week (I had no plan), and I was horribly slow. Last Fall, when I got a brochure from Team in Training about doing a marathon, I literally laughed and threw it away. Yeah, right. At the time, my good friend Abby was battling Hodgkin's Lymphoma (and still is), and while I was throwing the brochure away, there was a brief moment when I thought what a great gesture it would be to do something like that for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, but it wasn't enough to stop me from laughing it off. For some reason, this January when I got another brochure, it was different. I thought, maybe I can do this? I went to an informational session to learn more about it, and before I knew it, I found myself signing up for a half marathon in Alaska.
Before I even ran the race, I felt accomplished. During my training, with all of the miles and the injuries and the crazy weather and the people telling me that I’m insane, I have fallen in love with running. Yes, I was doing this for a worthy charity and in honor of my friend, but it ultimately gave back to me more than I expected. It is hard, but I like the challenge. It is painful, but I say, bring on that pain. Any difficulty or pain that I experience is worth going through for all the great things that running brings that I can’t even put into words-at the very least it’s stress relief and serene at times, but more than that, it’s realizing my human self, what I am capable of, and finding my place on earth with other living things. It’s taking all that stuff I was giving that’s inside my skin and seeing what it can do. And now I know that I can do it, and see that I can do much more. I’ve already won. People say this all the time, but it’s true: anyone can do this.
So, onto the race. My goals for this race are (in order of importance):
- Finish!
- Run the whole thing
- Take some awesome pictures (a moose or bear would be ideal)
- A time of <2:30
I got a text from a friend at 4am, wishing me luck. Instead of being annoyed at waking up so early, it was just more time for me to be excited. I practically jumped out of bed and threw on my race clothes. You can see how excited I was in my face.
The staging area was cold and rainy, but the rain cleared up before we started, and eventually in the race the sun came out. Was about 50F-perfect. It was much smaller than I thought-only about 1500 people in the half and 1100 in the full. But how beautiful. This is unlike any other race-there were no big crowds, no loud music-it was just the few of us and the Alaskan wilderness. A few shots-This is around mile 3 or 4:
Mile 7 put us on a trail
Miles 8-12 were along the water. You can see the city of Anchorage off in the distance:
There were some pretty wicked hills on the course. The one at mile 8.5 just about wiped me out-I slowed so much I could barely still say I was even running (but I was). The hill at mile 12.5 I was expecting, but got through it partly because I knew I was so close to the finish, but I also saw my favorite spectators. An old couple was sitting in front of their house in lawnchairs, with a boombox blasting the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow.” That was awesome, but what made it even more odd was that they sat completely emotionless-a la “American Gothic.”
Finally, I made it to the end. The finish line! There were still not very many people watching the race at the end--it was at a high school track, and there was really only people who had already finished and a handful of others. But I still pulled out everything I had across the finish line, and threw my arms in the air in victory. There were moments that day when I would realize in disbelief--I just ran a half-marathon. I would say it to myself and the non-runner of my past wouldn't believe it. But now, as I write this, I know I worked hard for it, and I earned every bit of it. I felt good for most of the race (except for the hills), and just enjoyed being where I was--my surroundings, my teammates and coach (who ran with me until mile 8), and doing something I never dreamed I would ever do. I can't wait for my next race. Thank you to all of my friends and family who offered support in the last many months. You believed in me, so I believed in me.
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I didn't see any animals along the race, but I did meet the rest of my goals! Here are the stats:
Gun time (official time): 2:23:15
Watch time: 2:22:55
84/161 Age Group
429/958 Women
Finally, here I am post-race. After some cheering for other people and a shower back at the hotel, I went out with some others to enjoy a big meal and some beer. Does life get any better?
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If you're interested in more pictures from my race and the rest of my trip to Alaska, you are welcome to flip through them here.