Monumental Marathon, Indianapolis

Well, the next logical step after a 5 mile run is, of course, the half-marathon......... did I just say a HALF-MARATHON????? 13.1 miles. all at once? I had 6 weeks to go from 5 miles to 13.1 miles. wow. Chris opted to not do this one with me, he's much more real with himself than I am, I was convinced I could do it, and do it inside of my own goal time too. I tried the rational increase of 1 mile every Saturday up until race day. The Saturday before the 1/2, I was very sick with some cold/flu thing that kept me from running for the entire week! So, I went into the 1/2 having not run in 8 days, and having not had a long run in over 2 weeks!!! (YOWSERS!) We had a hard time arranging babysitters for all the kids, and I had a tremendous amount of guilt and concern involving the kids. We had to leave our house at 3am for this whole shin-dig. A very nervous Julie (and proud Chris) were on our way. To the biggest obstacle of my life thus far. No really, growing, laboring, and delivering children is easy. Running 13.1 miles is not. The Monumental Marathon in Indy is VERY well organized. The whole packet-pick up was quick and painless. We were left with lots of time for my pre-race nerves to go into overdrive. After a self-guided tour of immediate downtown Indy, and 17 port-a-potty stops, it was time to line up. I lined up with the 10 minute mile people right off the bat. I had a goal of 2:15 for this bad boy, which was a 10:17 minute mile. Miles 1 and 2 were quick and easy, tons of crowd support, looped back by the start so I got to see Chris several times through those first 2 miles too, and he just looked so happy for me, so happy for me, and so proud of me -- I'll never forget the way he looked at me the whole time I was running that blasted race. Miles 3 and 4 were getting more challenging, we were in the more industrial part of Indy, more boring, less support, and less reminder that we were in the actual race I had been training for. Miles5-9 were hell. Pure awful hell. NO (and I am SOOOOO not exaggerating) NO support, we were running through neighborhoods and the whole glob of people really spread out through here, so I was essentially running in a strange area, all by myself. Makes it really hard to do this kind of run. At mile 9 I decided to hit the water table, my first water stop EVER. More time should really be spent on explaining how these things work....... I tried to merge into the other runners, grab my cup and take a drink (or maybe 2) while running, then toss the cup elegantly to the ground. Somehow, chick-a-dee in front of me decided that her foot should wrap around my foot, and I fell, Right on my knee. I wound up walking most of mile 9 due to a throbbing knee, but mostly my wounded pride. At mile 10 I got a 2nd wind. I only had a mere 5K left. I was gonna finish this thing regardless. I was REALLY bummed that I had allowed myself to walk , but I thought I could just get over it and finish this thing. Somewhere in mile 10 I began pacing with another lady who was grunting her way through this, just like me :-) At the 11, I couldn't help it -- I was getting crazy excited, and SOOO very tired! I pushed through 11, and soon hit 12! At this point we could see the uuber-fast full marathon finishers going down their special lane......wow they were fast, and determined! Then I hit the 12, sweet, glorious 12! About 1 minute into the 12, Chris re-appeared!!! He says "c'mon baby, the finish is just around that corner" So, I assume I have blocked out a huge chunk of the 12th mile, and I am nearly done!!!! Turns out, he was a little off... the finish was a ways away still, but he did run beside me as best he could. He left me when he went on to get to the finish line so he could get a pic of me crossing it (he wound up missing it due to the barricades and such that were set up all over) That last mile was really rough. It was a sweet, sweet relief to hear the finish line. This was one of those runs where I could sense the finish with all 5 senses. I could taste it (or maybe that was dehydration), I could smell it (something about a bunch of sweaty people all blobbed up in one little space) I could hear it (the heavy breathing that comes after you run 13.1 miles) I could feel it (awesome bands playing at the finish line) and, my favorite, I could SEE it. I gave that last .17 mile my ALL..... I finished that thing stronger than any other run ever! I ran it in 2h25m15s. I was pretty bummed for a long, LONG time about that........ well, I am still bummed about it. Ultimately though, I am happy with my first 1/2 experience, and if I could change anything about it, I would have gotten more training runs, focusing on those long runs.