And another one in the books

Exhausted so no time for a long post, but my overwhelming observations of the day -- major crowd support (in line w/ NY marathon) and negative split my @ss (so glad I didn't attempt that). 

No major pain but definitely sore legs.  Met someone named Patrick during the first mile and ran with and talked to him through about 13, which made it much more pleasant.  He was 19 and running his first full.  He was doing great and when we split at 13, it was so he could go ahead.  We unfortunately got a bit out in front of the 5 min fast pace group and we stayed there.  Around 13 some people near us were saying the pacer was running too slow and off his times.  I stayed near that group for much of the remainder of the race. 

I kept waiting for the pace group to pass me.  One time I photographed my friend Mary running White Rock and gave her the pics.  Her comment was, oh look at me and how happy I am, completely oblivious to the fact that the 4 hour pace group is bearing down behind me and would pass me in less than half a mile.  Well, I hit the bridge right around 19 and I heard this woman lean over and say to her daughter, look at all those balloons coming, honey.  Shite.  They passed me around 19.5, just across the bridge, and I stayed with them through about 20.  And then let them slide, knowing I had a slight cushion.

What I didn't expect was how much the sun and the hills over the last 6 miles would sap me.  I slowed a lot.  But I finished.  And oh yeah, for the first time in my life, I qualified for Boston!!  And as icing on the cake, hubby also had a 10 mile PR (guaranteed actually, first 10 mile race, but was on pace for a half PR as well).

Felt bad after I finished but fortunately hooked back up with Adam and we went to lay in the shade of a trash can while I waited for my legs to stop cramping and for the urge to vomit to pass.  We then went to find hubby, folks, his girlfriend, her folks, cousins, etc.  Went to the hotel, cleaned up, packed, went to lunch, then a party and then the airport.  Back in the Big D with smiles on our faces. 

The best part was hearing my name.  I actually didn't see any of my relatives (saw cousin's boyfriend and threw arm warmers at him) -- they yelled for me, but so many people were yelling my name that I didn't notice.  Should have told them to yell my last name.  Oh well.  Happy night.  Going to bed now.

Oh my... the nerves...

Chilling in the hotel room.  Friends who ran St. George today have posted crazy good times.  The two times I know both qualified -- David with 3:18 and Beth with 3:33.  Wow!  I hope to make it a hat trick!  But good grief, I'm not going for times like them! 

I avoided most of the horse show this morning.  I was in the arena for about 5 mins and my allergies were killing me.  So I went outside and made a few phone calls -- returned one good luck call from my local bestie and called my 2 friends running Wineglass tomorrow to say good luck to them.  Then hubby called me when my uncle's horse was showing, so I got back in and watched that.  It was pretty impossible for any of us in the audience to tell which horse did the best, but he ended up winning!  We all got to go onto the .... ring?  field? whatever it's called with dirt where the horses run around inside, and pose with the horse and my uncle for the winner's photo.  Then we all went to lunch and then we drove the last 7 miles of the course with Zach and Lawren.

There is an UGLY hill between 21 and 22.  Then 22 to 23 is a gradual but steady up.  My goal is going to be to hang with the 5 min fast pace group until that hill and then we'll see from there.  There's also an insanely ugly hill just after mile 2, but we never had a chance to drive that, and who cares at mile 2 anyway...

But there's a beautiful downhill finish, and the rest of the course is pretty fabulous too -- beautiful leaves turning colors.  Very, very, very nervous but also quite excited. 

Gear is laid out on the room's coffee table, but still need to actually put it together -- bib on shirt, chip on shoe, etc.  Doing that as soon as I check in a couple blogs, then we'll head downstairs for another pasta feed (after I ate a HUGE plate of it for lunch). 

Final stats through today (again counting the 3d of July as the 4th), just to reassure myself:

0-30 miles:  2 weeks
30.1-35 miles:  7 weeks
35.1-40 miles:  4 weeks
40.1-45 miles:  5 weeks
45.1-50 miles:  1 week

Next post will be interesting! 

T-1

Wow.  This time tomorrow, I should be approaching the starting corrals.  Nervous and excited.  My asthma is bothering me a lot more than usual now, and has been for the last 18 hours or so.  I think it's the cold air, and reminds me why I don't live in the north. 

Yesterday we went to the Mall of America for lunch and some shopping.  Then we went to the expo.  Smaller than White Rock's and RNR's, but bigger than St. George.  It was pretty good.  Didn't have time to drive the course though, unfortunately, so that will have to go on today's agenda. 

Zach and Lawren met us at the expo, which was fun.  Her ring is so pretty and they seem really happy.  Then we all came back to the house to hang out for a while and the 4 of us went out for coffee, then we all went out for dinner, waiting for Adam to get here.  We changed restaurants once b/c the wait was too long, but then settled at a pizza place.  Old Chicago, apparently a chain.  Service was atrocious but food was fine.  I couldn't believe Adam was drinking.  He was joking about sabotaging himself.

Anyway, slept well last night, now waiting for Zach and Lawren to come get us so we can head out to breakfast, then a horse show, then lunch, then driving the course, hotel, dinner, laying out our gear for the morning.  Wow...

T-2, MSP observations

We're here and it's fu**ing cold! 

We had a smooth trip up, got everything done, resolved whatever the issue was with not letting my husband check-in online, etc., and made it safely to South Minneapolis where we're staying with my cousin and her boyfriend for the first 2 nights. 

When we got to the house, she was at work and he had some stuff to do and asked what we wanted to do.  We said we'd like to go for a walk, so he sent us on a course that he figured would be about 3 miles.  We walked to Lake Harriet and went along the marathon course, then up one side of Lake Calhoun (and there was a crappy hill in between the two that I'll have to run).  Then down through the part of uptown back to their house.  It was way more walking than I wanted, but at least I was wearing good shoes and it was Thursday and not Friday.  Not a big deal.  We stopped for groceries and coffee and to sit and look at the lake, but all told, it was 2 hours and 54 mins before we got back to the house.  Crazy!

Our overwhelming observation of MSP:  wow, it's a great city for runners and bikers, which is so surprising b/c the weather is so bad here for a couple months.  There are paths around the lakes.  Or should I say pathS.  One path for bikes and other wheeled devices (rollerblades), and one for pedestrians.  And then when we were walking in the city, the strangest thing happened.  We were crossing a street where a car was attempting to turn onto or cross the street we were walking on and had started to pull into the intersection.  So this happens all the time.  In Dallas, you just walk a little out of your way behind the car.  And if they can make their turn, then you don't go all the way behind it.  Here, the car would be waiting to go, see us coming, and BACK UP.  If it happened once, I'd think wow, what a courteous driver.  But when it happens repeatedly, you start to think, that's just what people do here.  Drivers are nice and extra-accomodating to pedestrians.  It was crazy awesome. 

Ate an awesome dinner that my cousin made and then friends of theirs came over and we stayed up very late talking.  And kind of "discussing."  Somehow the sex-based pay gap came up, and wow, we talked about that a lot.  I'm very opinionated about sex/gender/culture issues and I was going on and on about society tracking womyn into lower-paying positions, etc.  But no one was really arguing and it just ended up being a fun night of talking.  The people who were over are ultra folks.  She actually holds the women's course record on a race -- either 50 or 100 miles, can't remember which.  But he was just coming off a 100-miler about 3 weeks ago.  And they jokingly said they'd pace me for my goal pace, since there's no official pace group.  I think I'm fairly committed now to the idea of going with the 5 min fast pace group, and just hoping to hang through 20, and then allowing myself to slow if necessary. 

So we slept in a bit this morning and then I went for my final tune-up run.  It was lovely but I now have a shopping list for the expo today -- better gloves and an ear/head band.  My ears were so cold after just 20 or so minutes, and my hands are even freezing now in the house!  The run was pretty good.  Hubby and I walked about 13 minutes to the lake and then south until we found a good place to get on the lake path.  Then I ran out 7 mins and felt very achy, u-turned and ran all the way back to the house and felt good. 

Plan for today:  Lunch, expo.  Maybe meeting people for dinner, and maybe going to the Mall of America if it's not too far away. 

Getting very excited, and starting to feel less nervous. If I don't qualify, I don't qualify.  There will be other marathons.  But I've definitely trained well and I need to push myself to try hard.