FINISHED!!!

A few months back I came up with the great idea that we (Jackson, my friend Amber, and her husband Jon) should run the mini-marathon. Yeah, that was a bad idea. We all finished, though! Jon came in first at 2:27, then Jackson at 2:28 (he was so close to winning our group competition!), Amber at 2:47 and me at...well, not that good. A big shout out to my brother Aaron for running a new PR of 93 minutes (I hate him! I'm so proud of him!). Kathi and Jackson had a little competition going, too and Kathi won by 8 minutes. Ouch. ;)

This morning's crowd...35,000 runners

Running is such a mental thing. I always thought that line was BS until this morning's race. I had to play so many mental games with myself to keep from just getting on the shuttle for runners who were calling it quits early. I've outline my experience below:

Starting line: I find Amber and Jon in our corral which was "W" (to give reference, Aaron was in corral "B", Jackson was in "L" so I was pretty far back) so I had a lot of time to wait for the race to begin. I had to walk about a mile just to start. I'm not kidding. I was really nervous. I don't know why.

Starting line: We're off! Wow, there are a lot of people here. I'm feeling good. I run almost the entire mile because I am dodging slow people. I first saw Morgan (detailed below) near the zoo.

Meet Morgan

Mile 2: This little girl (Morgan) appears to be like 4. I think, "Is she running this thing, too? That's insulting. I must beat her. Oh, I have to pee. Shoot. I should have peed before the race began. I can pee after I finish the 5k because I'm on pace for a PR for that distance."

Mile 3: I have to pee. I run on.

5k: PR! Woo hoo! 47 minutes. That's a 5 minute improvement. Woot. I have to pee!

Bathroom stop. Accidentally reset my watch and lose my time. Crap. Moving on. Only 10 miles to go. Ugh.

Mile 4: Why did I sign up for this race? I bet Aaron has already finished.

Mile 5: Why is math so hard right now? How many miles do I have left? I see a sign saying, "8.1 miles left!" Then I get a text from Aaron saying that he was finished, ran a PR and was headed home to ice. I'd been all alone for 5 miles and I was emotional. This meant that I'd officially be running/walking the entire race all by myself (Amber and Jon got way ahead of me from the start-as told by the finishing times!). I had to dig deep. I'd been counting on not wanting to embarrass myself running with Aaron to keep me going. I entered into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in full out tears.

Mile 6: The track. This is neat. I can do this. Right?

Mile 7: I see Morgan again. She's yelling at her dad to run more. I tell him that she is a tough cookie and I'd been kind of using her as my pacer all race. He tells me I'm welcome to do so, but that she is motivated to do some more running. Turns out Morgan is actually 10, not 4. Close enough.

Mile 8: Satan Morgan yells to run. I run, but give them space as to not seem creepy. She looks at me and says, "You coming?!" I scurry to catch up.

Mile 9: Lucifer Morgan wants to run more. We do it. Her dad finally cried uncle. Thank God. We walked through some rough neighborhoods. I ran ahead. Morgan caught up. That little turd.

Mile 10: Why isn't this race over yet? Oh, Gatorade instead of water? Yes, please. Gatorade makes me think of Tim Tebow and carries me to the next mile. I'm not kidding. Sadly.

Mile 11: I seem to have something in my shoe. I stop and sit down to check my shoe. Nope, nothing in it besides a HUGE blister that has formed on my toe. Excellent. I won't be stopped. I put my shoe back on, run to catch up with that evil child Morgan and keep on.

Mile 12: This is almost over. I cry. I don't know why. It could be because I wanted to stop so badly and wouldn't let myself. An internal battle of sorts. Tiny demon Morgan decides that she cannot go anymore. She's walking the rest of the way. I thank her for killing motivating me and jog for a bit to "Victory Mile" which seems to be 30 miles instead of one. I begin looking for suspicious bags to make sure no one is going to try to blow my legs off before I can cross the finish line. All looks to be well. I turn on Eminem and push on towards the finish.

Mile 13: Oh thank the Lord. Another .1 mile? Are you kidding me? That seems like an eternity. I push through and cross the finish line.

I cry. Again. I was so overwhelmed. I did it! I honestly didn't think I could. I have a real problem with quitting when things get tough and I didn't. I finished. I did the entire race all by myself (save a little help from Morgan). I got my medal, banana, scolded someone for offering me a cookie after all of that exercise and went to find my family.

I found Jackson sitting in the grass with his shoes off. I could't speak. I was still crying. I went to the scorer's table for my final time. I came in 2 minutes under my goal. Thank you, Morgan! I cried some more. We met up with Kathi and walked the mile back to car. My foot was killing me. The blister turned out to be about the size of a blueberry on my 4th toe. Disgusting. We rolled down the windows on the drive home since we all stunk. Ha!

We were pretty much done for the day after that. We got lunch and then just hung out around the house trying to recover.

Gracie ran the 5k with Susie this morning and was in much better spirits than we were

Even MacKenzie got in on the action and wore my medal during her afternoon nap.
Jackson and I are so glad this race is over. We're really happy to have both finished. Jackson is fairly happy with his time. I'm elated for myself and a little embarrassed at the same time if that makes sense. I wish I was a faster finisher, but I finished so that's that. I was really impressed with Amber and Jon's efforts today. Kathi was able to carry on with her day like running didn't phase her. Annoying. And of course the most impressive showing goes to my almost 40 year old older brother who makes us all look like slackers!