Roots n Blues n BBQ

After days and weeks and months of training, the big day has finally come and gone.  And it was awesome.  But, of course, I need to back up and tell the WHOLE story.  Because I know everyone is dying to hear every single detail.  Hahahaha.  To be honest, I was surprised that even my own children were interested in hearing all about it.  It was a pleasant surprise to see how much Ethan, Grace, and Sophie wanted to know at bedtime last night when I was rehashing the day.  They were SUPER excited about it.  Over pretty much almost every single detail.  Like how people were holding up signs and cheering for us along the way.  And like how it was still dark outside when we got to the race.  And how there were lots and lots of Porta Potties.  And how there was free BBQ at the end for the racers.  And how my friend {and their friends' mom} had to stop and tie her shoe right before we crossed the starting line for the race.  And how me and my friends tried to stay together for pretty much the whole entire race.  Sophie kept bouncing up and down with glee and saying "Is this our bedtime story you're reading us?"  And Ethan just lounged there in his bed trying to be all nonchalant but I could tell he was really into the story and Grace sat rocking in the rocking chair in Ethan and Sophie's room and finally calmed down from the fit she was having as she listened to all the exciting details.  It was probably one of my favorite parts of the whole day to see them hanging onto every word that was coming out of my mouth and getting super pumped up and excited for ME and then super pumped up and excited for themselves as they talked about all the races THEY are going to run someday.  It was awesome.  Complete with awesome sauce. 

And now for the Whole Story.  I went up Friday afternoon with my "running group."  There were 10 of us ladies from my ward who were going to be running the race along with one spouse from the group and another couple they were friends with.  The race was in Columbia near the campus for Mizzou and we thought it would be easier to be there the night before and not have to get up even earlier to make the drive over the morning of the race.  We all met up at the Olive Garden for dinner and it was so much fun!  Unfortunately, I discovered upon my arrival that the batteries in my camera were basically dead so I have no good pictures of our night out.  I'll eventually have some pictures to document the whole journey, though, because our "coach" ended up not being able to run due to a stress fracture and became our team photographer instead. 

{Side note -- Ethan's immediate response after telling him we ate at the Olive Garden?  "The Olive Garden is the second worst place to work for employees."  Hahahaha.  What what say what???  He went on to say that he had seen an article about it on Yahoo and that the number one place was McDonald's.  The funniest thing of all was how he got so serious and mature-sounding as he matter-of-fact-ly slipped in that little tidbit of information.}

After dinner we headed back to our various hotels before all the girls ended up in our suite where we had a mini Girls Night In complete with chit chat, story telling, and of course nail painting.  We decided we needed to pick a solidarity color and kept things very democratic as we voted between our choices of purple and pink.  In the end "Fuschia Bling Bling" won out and we ran with it.  {Terrible} pun intended.  Hahahaha.  All good things must come to an end, though, and eventually we all had to go to bed.  Here is where my LEAST favorite part of the experience came in -- I could NOT fall asleep to save my life!!!  It was so frustrating!  Every time I looked at the clock and saw the time ticking away it made me that much more stressed and anxious to just GO TO SLEEP so that I'd be rested in the morning.  In the end I think it was after 1:30 before I finally drifted off and my alarm went off at 5:30 to get the day started.  BOO.  Once I was able to pry my eyes open, get dressed, and get my contacts in I started to get really excited to get going.  All my stress and worry from the day before over the weather being colder completely melted away as we walked outside and realized the forecast must have been wrong and we would be running in the most perfect weather ever.  As we got to the race with daybreak on our heels I totally forgot about the fact that I was going on about 4 hours of sleep and I had 13.1 miles of running ahead of me.  It was so much fun to be there with my friends and to be ready to do such a big thing.

Girls Night!  {Pre-Nail Painting}

Me and Charity getting ready for the race.

Group shot Pre-Race.

Me and Tawny waiting for the start.

As the starting gun went off and we began our run {uphill} into the beautiful dawning day, everything felt perfect.  The first 3 miles or so took us through part of campus and then on some roads and highways before cutting over to a trail run through a park.  The parts of campus we saw looked really cool and the trail was BEAUTIFUL.  We were running through the park for probably 5 or 6 miles and in some ways it just felt like we were on one of our regular Saturday morning runs.  When Ethan asked, "How was the scenery?" I had to laugh out loud because the scenery was in fact the most beautiful part of the run.  {Not to mention it was such an odd question for a 9 year old to ask.  Hahahaha.}  The running of the first 8 or 9 miles during the race was just awesome.  It was once we hit the 10 and 11 mile marks that I started to run out of steam.  The last few miles of the race were run through a residential area with streets and neighborhoods that were just charming and beautiful.  And a wee bit hilly.  Not the easiest thing to manage at the end of a long race.  I really started to wonder if my feet could keep me going for that last mile or so.  In all honesty, the hardest part for me was that last tenth of a mile!  Once I saw the mark for 13 miles I was kind of done mentally.  It was at this point that I saw Scott cheering for me and snapping pictures on the sideline and I knew I could finish and I was almost there. 

Coming around the bend -- almost there!  Me, Tawny, and April stuck together for pretty much the whole race.  They both kicked my tail in the chute, though, as they sprinted for the finish line.  :)

In the finish chute.

After yelling for Scott to hurry and run to the finish line so he could snap pictures of me crossing over, I  forced my feet to keep moving one foot after another until I finally had that finish line in sight.  As an added bonus I saw our friends who had already finished cheering and waving at the corner.  It was funny because I thought I'd get really emotional crossing the finish line but I didn't.  I was just so glad and happy and ecstatic to be done that I didn't have time for tears.  It wasn't until I joined my friends on the corner to wait for the last few runners in our group to finish that the emotion really hit me.  With each friend that came around the corner and ran through the finish line I got a little choked up.  Being in this big group and clapping and waving and cheering them on as we saw them felt a bit symbolic {once again}.  And when the very last runner in our group came around the bend I remember thinking that this must be what Heaven is like.  A joyous reunion of friends and loved ones who are cheering and clapping and so excited to finally be joined together.  It was awesome.

Don't worry -- I'm not puking.

I'm alive!   I promise!

I did it.

I finished the race!

Parkway Ward sisters L to R -- (top) April, Davina, {Coach} Rachel, Leia, Charity, Jessica, Natalie

(bottom) Tawny, Karissa, Me

Roots n Blues n BBQ Festival Half-Marathon 2012

The whole group -- adding Karissa's husband Scott (in the back) and their friends Jaron and Meagan.

Fuschia Bling Bling Girl Power.

Apparently I was the only one who could no longer stand on their feet.  Hahahaha.

Once the race was over I grabbed a little BBQ and was flabbergasted to discover that I was so exhausted that the mere act of chewing my food was even more draining than I would have ever thought possible.  The original plan was to maybe stay around and check out the festival or campus or find something else to do in Columbia, but I was so wasted and completely out of steam {that 4 hours of sleep was REALLY starting to hit me} that I decided we should probably just hit the road.  Scott hadn't eaten anything yet so we stopped at a Friday's on the way home and ate some lunch.  The waiter who, bless his heart, was not the greatest {he never brought us our soup or salad but charged us just the same} made one grace-saving move in bringing me out a balloon where he had {wrongly} written "I RAN A MARATHON!!!" after I told him I was so tired because I had just run 13.1 miles.  Hahahaha.  After eating and correcting our bill we were on our way.  But first I had a little business to take care of.

Believe it or not, I actually DID get a little emotional as I carefully applied that sticker to the back of the car.  THIS is what made it real.  That and my hot mess of a hairdo.

I added in the "HALF" once I got to the car.

Once home I was basically good for nothing for the rest of the day.  I had a raging headache from being so tired and my feet and legs were justifiably aching.  After showering and trying to lay down for a while I was still really hurting, so Scott made my whole life when he instantly supported my idea to go and get a massage when I brought it up at the end of the day.  It was awesome.  If only I could end EVERY day the same way.  Hahaha.

Trying on my medal.

Well, folks -- that's it.  The Whole Story.  Will I do it again?  Absolutely!  I've got a new PR to achieve...