Wow, so I really don't know where to start here.
I finished the Houston Half-Marathon. I did it. I managed to cross the finish line.
I think I am still a little shocked that it is actually over. I don't think the experience will be easily forgotten.
I find that I am actually having some difficulty sitting down and writing about it. I'm just not really sure what to say. Those of you who have done something like this probably understand a bit better than most, but I just can't quite figure out how to get things down right.
Friday, Kelli and I went to the Expo to pick up our bibs and shirts and all that. We were both already completely jumpy (something that wouldn't go away until we were actually running on Sunday morning). Getting our stuff at the Expo was actually a lot quicker and far less painful than I expected it to be (since 25,000 people would be picking up their stuff over the course of 2 days). And we picked up some freebies along the way. We also had an awesome lunch of amazing salads and wine at Churrasco's, picked up stuff for decorating our race-day singlets, and had fantastic frozen yogurt at Swirll (something that I am now totally craving – thanks a bunch, Kelli!). It was a nice day, and it was good to hang out with someone who knew exactly how I was feeling.
I was hoping to get a good night's sleep Friday night, since I knew I wouldn't sleep well the night before the run. Of course, I was already so keyed up, so I really didn't sleep so well.
Saturday really seemed to drag by. We ended up checking into the hotel earlier than necessary, and we were both really, really hungry hours before the pasta party. We hung out and stressed out about the next day together until it was time to head down to dinner. I honestly don't know how I would have handled any of this mess without the support of someone else.
James showed up to join us for the pasta party, and we left the room to head down to the party. We could hear shouting and noisemakers and general insanity from the 19th floor, and we immediately knew it was our group. When we arrived at the ballroom, we were greeted by a ton of people with cowbells and boas and clappy-hands and all sorts of other noise-making devices cheering our names. It was a bit disconcerting at first, but it was really nice that they were so happy and supportive and awesome.
The dinner was nice (lots of pasta!), and the speeches made me cry, of course. Paula's speech had me crying almost immediately. I really enjoyed the reminder that while we were each accomplishing something huge as individuals, we were accomplishing so much more as a group. The amount of money raised by our little group really was quite amazing. There's just something special about knowing that pushing yourself to do something that you never thought you would be able to do also helps people that are going through something so much more difficult. Personally, I have managed to raise $2,575 towards fighting blood cancers. There's still time to donate, if you are interested. I would really like to make it to $3,000 before the month is over.
http://pages.teamintraining.org/txg/houston09/khughesw0s
After dinner, we all hung around and decorated our singlets. Everyone had something different to say or to put on the shirt, so it was fun to see all of the different ones. We decorated ours with sparkly letters. Mine had my name on the front and said "Because I Can" and "Cancer Hater" on the back. Kelli's (which I loved), had her name on the front and "Cancer is my bitch! Survivor since 2007" on the back.
Afterwards, we knew we were still too keyed up to sleep, so the 3 of us hung out in the bar for a little bit. I had a virgin strawberry daiquiri, even though I desperately wanted a "real" drink. I didn't really want my body to be angry at me the next morning.
Eventually, we made our way back up to the room and sat around reading until we thought we might actually be able to fall asleep. I definitely didn't manage to get a decent amount of sleep. I kept waking up convinced that we had slept through all 4 of the alarms/wake-up calls and missed the race. Not that we could have possibly slept through the wake-up call – when it did come (at 4:30am), it was LOUD.
We got up, got dressed, and headed down to the lobby to meet the rest of the group. We all milled around a bit, took a group picture, listened to some instructions, attempted to wake everyone else in the hotel up with a "GO TEAM", and headed over to the convention center. We hung out there in our sea of purple shirts for a while. I ate half a banana and a bit of bagel with peanut butter since I had long enough before the start for it to digest. Then I just stood/sat around being nervous. Having a little under 3 hours between waking up and actually starting the run is a bad thing – we were all starting to get a bit tired again.
At 6:30, we headed out to the starting line, where we stood around some more. Eventually, the gun sounded for the 7:00 start (the faster runners), and I started to get really excited. When our gun went off (7:10), there was a wave of movement towards the starting line. It really was pretty insane. The sea of people was just amazing, and I was only starting with a fourth of the total runners. Several times during the beginning miles of the race you could just see the stretch of people out in front of you. I really don't think that I have experienced anything like it.
So, we crossed the start line and started running. We really had to make a conscious effort not to allow the pace of others speed us up. We are slow, we know it, and we really needed to start slow so as not to wear ourselves out early in the run. I thought that we did a good job of it, and I was feeling great around mile 1. The weather was perfect – little to no humidity and just the right level of cool. It felt like a great day for a run, and I felt really strong.
Just a note: Houston may SEEM flat, but once you start running it, there really are a lot more uphill roads than you would expect. Just a little something I noticed over the course of 13.1 miles of it. It seemed like we were running uphill so often.
We ran through part of downtown and into the Heights. We heard a rooster, which was pretty odd, but it made me laugh, and I needed that. There were people out on the sides of the road cheering us on, and we passed a high school band out to play for us. I really enjoyed that aspect of it – people who didn't know you were out there cheering for you (often by name, as it is printed in large block letters on the front of your bib). The kids were especially fun, as they were all so excited.
We also go several responses to Kelli’s shirt – we would hear people laughing about it and pointing it out to their friends behind us, then people would run by and say things like “way to go survivor”. It was pretty cool.
The running itself went pretty well at first. I actually felt really good a couple of miles in. I was running the whole thing with the exception of water stops and a couple of really step inclines that seemed like a good time to rest. We stopped occasionally to say hello to family and friends. Kelli’s family was really cute with their signs and was nice enough to have Gatorade there for both of us. Though, they do lose some points for stationing themselves at one point in the middle of a steep uphill bit so that we had to run it =)
I was really happy to run into several of my friends. It was awesome of you guys to be out there – thank you so much! I wish that I could have stopped and talked to people for longer! (And I totally forgot to get a picture with Geneva and one with Cassie – sad!) Having a friend run screaming at you definitely does something to pump you up and help you keep going. Cassie almost managed to knock me over =)
We eventually made it through the Heights and ran by my apartment. You could actually see the sign I made hanging from my balcony, and it was nice to run by and see James out by the road cheering us on. Around that point, we ran into Steve (hi Steve!), who wanted to run a couple of miles with us. It was really cool to have him run with us, as he has been saying he wanted to run with me for a long time, and who knows if he will ever get another chance. I hope we weren’t too slow for him! Anyway, the bit of the route on Montrose was the part that we had to loop around and do twice, which seemed a little unfair.
It was at that point that I realized that I had really managed to get to around mile 8 mostly without walking except for water breaks. I decided that I was going to try to run the whole thing, because I knew that if I walked, I would feel the need to see if I could actually run the whole thing if I stayed healthy and got all of the training in, and I really didn’t want to feel the need to do the whole thing over again.
I was excited to run into Erin and her James since I thought she was going to have to be at work, and I wasn’t expecting to see her out there. I don’t think that you guys realize how much of an energy boost you get when you see people you love out cheering you on – thank you all so much for being there!
When we got back around to the apartment, I actually got to stop and talk to James. He brought Corky out to watch us, so I also got to say hello to my sweet doggie. The ran with us for a little while, then he and Steve left to head downtown to meet us at the finish, and Kelli and I started out on our last 3 miles back into downtown.
At this point, my legs were complaining big time, and I hurt all over. It felt like every step was an insane effort, and I started to seriously question my ability to even finish the thing. I don’t think I have ever felt my body breaking down like that. I got slower and slower, but I managed to maintain a job for most of the time.
When we passed the bridge with the “1.5 miles to go” sign on it, I was both relieved that we were almost done and completely horrified that I still had to go another mile and a half. Shortly after the bridge, we were back in downtown. The buildings supplied a welcome shade, as the weather had warmed up quite a bit with the sun out. It was really surreal to run through the empty streets of downtown Houston. Somewhere in there, my legs just quit on me, and I had to walk a little bit. I got back to running before too long, though.
I don’t think I can really explain what that last half mile felt like. When we turned onto the street with the finish on it and could see the finish line in the distance, it still felt like so far to go. The crowds were packed onto the sidewalks, and I couldn’t tell if I knew anyone there, but everyone was screaming and cheering. It felt completely amazing even though I hurt everywhere. I was crying well before we reached the line, so the whole thing is a blur to me – I had my head down so that thousands of people couldn't watch me cry. I was just so full of emotion both because of what we had accomplished and how much we had been able to help by doing so.
So, we finished. We were really, really slow. My official finishing time was 3:37:06. Yes, I know how slow that is, but I don’t really care. I was 8146th, overall (of, it looks like, 8434 half-marathon runners). Go me!
Once I stopped running, even walking was difficult. We picked up our medals, shirts, and food, then headed out to the TEAM tent, where I sat and ate junk food and worried about having to try to walk again. I spent the rest of the day hobbling around with sharp knee pain and legs that didn’t seem to work. Totally worth it, though.
I really can’t express how lucky I was to have Kelli as a running partner. She was a constant inspiration and someone to complain to. I couldn’t have done this without her! She also hosted an awesome “I didn’t die” party afterwards, complete with free beer and Crave cupcakes! Much fun and love!
I posted pictures on my Facebook account. Let me know if I need to post them elsewhere for people who don’t have Facebook. You can also see video of us crossing the finish line (proof!!) here: http://www.finishcam.com/Events/2009-Chevron-Houston-Marathon/
So, that’s that. I know I can’t do the event justice writing about it, but it’s good to have something down.
Thank you all for being amazing, supportive, and understanding as I have gone through this process. I have the best people in the world!
