We did it!

I actually did it, friends.  I have been thinking about running a long race for years now and I finally did it!  Sunday was the Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon.  Surprisingly, I actually had a lot of fun running it.  I don’t know if it was the adrenaline or the fact that I was so proud of myself for finally accomplishing my goal, but I really only had about 2 miles of “iffy” attitude out of the 13 miles.

The morning started off with the alarm going off at 5am.  I didn’t let the fact that I was about to run 13 miles change that I MUST have coffee in the morning.  I tried to shove down a bagel, but my stomach wasn’t really in the mood to consume that early in the morning.  Ben and I then headed over to the start line which was about a 5 min walk from our condo…how lucky are we?!  We made a last minute stop at the miles and miles of portable toilets and got in line for the start.

They did a wave start, meaning they actually had 4 “starts.”  It spread the people out significantly which made running much less crowded.  We started toward the back, because, well, we aren’t stupid and knew we wouldn’t be able to keep up with all the gazelles in the front.  After about 10 minutes of me annoying the crap out of Ben because I was so excited, our wave was called and we began our trek.

We paced ourselves PERFECTLY.  I was actually impressed that we were able to keep on track with so many people around us and all the distractions.  I was also surprised by how fast the race was going by.  We seriously ran 4 miles without me really relizing we’d been running for almost 40 minutes.  We hit the first water stop and that is when I discovered I can’t run and drink water at the same time.  Good thing Ben was still with me because I was coughing and laughing hysterically for about a minute and that would have been terribly embarrassing by myself. 

We knew Ben wouldn’t be running the entire thing due to an injury so he stepped out around 4 miles and I continued on my merry little way.  I stayed on pace but had to slow down just a tad due to water stations and the required walking rule I gave myself.  I met up with Ben again around mile 8.  I think he told me he could no longer feel from the knee down and was limping so badly he was basically hopping.  I may or may not have gotten slightly mad at him and yelled at him to stop because I didn’t want to have to call the ambulance.  All out of love.

Anyway, I continued the rest of the way on my own.  Around mile 10 was where I started to not feel so positive about the task I had just undertaken.  I kept giving myself pep talks and reminding myself I had to fit into a wedding dress in 3 months.  It’s amazing how motivating that is.

As I rounded the corner at the Field Museum I realized there was really only about .25 of a mile left and I started feeling really good.  I also knew it was highly likely I would see some of our friends soon.  Then I turned the corner onto Columbus and saw the finish line.  It was a really odd feeling because I was sad that it was over and very proud of myself for accomplishing something I have been thinking about for so long.  I actually got a little choked up.  Then I saw our friend.  She started jumping around like a crazy woman cheering me on and I couldn’t help but laugh.  There were so many people cheering it was kind of overwhelming!

I finished the race just how I wanted…under two hours.  Turns out, the course was actually 13.27 miles so I ran faster than I thought.  I finished in 1 hour 59 minutes and 44 seconds.   Hooray!

I got my metal, pounded a bottle of water, got my senses back and realized Ben was still on the course, injured.  I booked it home (I mean, I walked as fast as I could, which wasn’t very fast), grabbed my phone, called Ben (since we decided he should keep his phone) and was surprised to hear he was running agian.  He said he was about .25 from the finish so I mustered all my energy and ran to meet him.  Just as I was coming up on the course I saw his florescent orange shirt.  I was able to jump back on the course and run the rest of the way with him.

I was so dissappointed when Ben got hurt 3 months ago because I knew we wouldn’t be able to run together.  I was also slighly salty at him for running so long at the beginning of the race because I knew he was pushing himself too far.  But somehow, we managed to finish the race together which is all I really wanted.  Once again, our friends were there cheering us on which really helped us both finish…we were both in plenty of pain.

We celebrated our feat with mimosas and friends.  We then had a wonderful breakfast where I ate 2 huge pancakes, and an entire frittata and didn’t feel all that full.  We topped off the morning with a very painful walk to Roy’s Furniture where we FINALLY found a kitchen table.  We managed to hobble home and sleep the rest of the afternoon.

It was a perfect weekend.