I've completed dozens of 5Ks and one marathon in my lifetime but never any distances in-between so I thought this year it was finally time to change that.
Now let's stop right here and so that I don't give the wrong impression that I am a super-good runner who really has a resume, let's point out here I'm saying "completed" and not "competed in" because I am embarassingly-slow long-distance runner, am not competition to anyone, and have plans to apply for no actual running job. Just so that's clear. Don't make me any offers.
So before I was a Mom, I used to be motivated to run races by a bunch of petty things like t-shirts and medals and ambition and pride but I no longer collect any of that, so I'm pretty sure the motivation now is just the weekend getaways that running races more than two hours from home require. Luckily, some of my friends are also willing to run a 1/2 marathon as payment for a night away too so that's what we did.
So here is the run down of our slumber party, er, I mean half marathon!
Four of us cruised in high-class style up to Logan in Amy's natural gas Civic. Here we are filling up at the specialty gas station. Well, Amy is trying to fill up while I mock and take pictures. (This could have been a separate post because Jake is thinking of buying one of these status symbols too):
How does this work again? Hmm. Hmm? Hmm. Hmm!
It's working!
Oh wait, it's not, I have to pay first.
How do you pay?
How do you pay?
Ok, NOW it's working! No, it really is! This is not another premature thumbs up! No, really, look, it's filled up $3!
Ericka was very scared while she watched in the car.
Ericka was very scared while she watched in the car.
Sure it took us 20 minutes to figure out how the pump worked but what's a little pride when you can drive 8 hours on $6 of gas?
We then met up with more friends for the all-important carbo-load dinner. This is another major selling point to the whole race charade.
We then took over the basement of Amy's super-cute grandparents. I was a little surprised that a slumber party can turn you instantly into a bunch of 13-year old giggling girls but that it did. I think it was also a coping mechanism for awkwardly sharing a full-sized bed with your 30-year old neighbor. So is taking a picture of it:
We then woke up super-early the next morning and met up with two other bras from our "6 Bras and 6 Supporters" team and rode the bus for like 4 hours from the finish line to the starting line. OK maybe it was like 20 minutes but it felt like 4 hours when you know you're going to run it back. 13 miles is a long way!
Riding the bus:
And here we are at the end!
My friend Liz ran it too and I saw her and her cute baby Hank at the finish line to cheer her on! OK well she finished it way before me so technically they weren't at the finish line any more they were like on their way out to their car but same thing.
There is a full marathon on the same course that runs down the same canyon and through the cutest little mountain towns next month. It's going to be fall foilage! So many of my favorite things--so tempting! Any takers?
6 comments:
What fun! I'm teetering more and more towards doing the full. Oh crap! I'm SCARED! Give me some time still before I commit.
ha ha i know that course sounds like a great marathon. maybe next year... i don't know if i'll be ready for that in a month but i'm thinking of doing a marathon at the end of october in cali
You always were a crazy runner. :) Well done, lady - I'm proud of you! Do you still throw up everytime you finish? Don't I remember you doing that at FHS?
Yes I did throw up pretty much every race during high school cross country. But that was mostly because after a leisure 3 mile jog I would pick up to a full-out sprint the last 400 meters so I could look fast crossing the finish line.
Yay! Good job!
Michelle, you're awesome! I feel like it's been way too long since I've seen you. I hope you're doing good.
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