Newport Half RR

In the days leading up to the race, I was, again, seriously doubting myself and my abilities to complete an entire 13.1 miles. My taper week was pretty horrible. I guess I developed shin splints or something, because the two times that I ran 3 miles, my shins and calves burned continuously, making me run at an extremely slow pace, in serious discomfort the whole way. I was very anxious/moody on friday and saturday.

Saturday I had to work a 13 hour shift because my schedule coordinator would only allow me to take Sunday as a vacation day and not the whole weekend. It wasn't that bad though because I sat on the stool for most of the day. I had ordered chinese food for lunch with spring rolls and lots of steamed white rice and then I had chicken parm for dinner. I didn't eat the entire thing though so I think I carbed up enough without overdoing it. I also had 2 L of water throughout the day, which wasn't very smart on my part, because I was the only pharmacist on and I had to keep running to the bathroom all day. Oh well! I was also stretching/messaging my legs all day to try and get them loosened up enough where they hopefully would not be bothersome during the run. Some old guy saw me and said I shouldn't rub my calf if it hurts because I could have a blood clot that could dislodge and kill me. Oh my god, haha. Thanks for the advice, dude.

Before I went to bed that night, Kevin and I did some more stretching, which made me feel better, but then I woke up in the middle of the night because my entire left leg was throbbing with pain. I took some ibuprofen and went back to sleep for another 3 hours until the alarm went off at 5:30am.

I remember hearing the alarm and then crying 'noooooooo!' because I was so tired. We got dressed, had a bagel and a banana, went downstairs and hopped into Sean's car at about 6:10/6:15. I thought the trip to Newport would be quick, maybe about a half hour, but we hit some traffic when we got there, so we decided to park on a side road and do a little .7 mile warm up run to the shuttle busses. It was super cold out so I didn't mind doing the warm up run. After the warm up I felt awake, and more pumped than ever because my legs weren't hurting me! That was probably due to the fact that I took some more ibuprofen that morning.

There was a long line to the shuttle bus when we got there, and got to the start of the race with just a few minutes to spare. We had a little trouble getting our bibs b/c Pat and Lauren picked them up the night before, but were already lined up for the race. Thank goodness Lauren found us and gave us our bibs slightly after the gun went off! Kevin, Sean, Knapp and I didn't start with the majority of the racers though because we had to make the ritualistic pre-run trip to the porta-potties. We didn't end up starting the run until around 8:21am, and we made it just as they were taking apart the chip line...close call!

The run started out on a huge ass hill. For me, I start my long runs out VERY slow, so reaching the top of the hill felt I was walking instead of running up it, but I didn't want to up my pace until at least the second mile. It was so weird because we started at the very end of the pack. I was running by myself basically and was worried I was going to get lost. Fortunately there were lots of arrow signs and....HALLELUJAH! there were MILE MARKERS!!! I think this is the first race I've done where they actually put mile markers down, which helps me out a lot, figuring out my pace and junk. Anyways, I was feeling a little deflated motivation-wise as I ran by myself. There were next to no spectators left at the start of the race and I was getting what I think was compliments out of sheer pity from the cops that I passed saying, 'good job' and 'keep it up', maybe because they thought I was struggling already at not even a mile down.

At about 2 miles in, my shins and calves started hurting me again and I just thought to myself, oh crap, here we go. Sean passed me at about 2.5 miles in. I was very surprised to see him because I thought he had started out ahead of me. It was really nice seeing a familiar face. He asked if I was doing ok, which I said I was, but what I really wanted to say is my legs hurt and I want to stop, but I kept chugging along anyways. My left leg actually went numb at one point, which I would normally be worried about, but I was just happy that I was feeling numbness instead of pain.

Then, miraculously, between miles 4-5, the pain subsided and I was able to start kicking it up a notch! After that it was pretty much smooth sailing for the rest of the way. I started catching up to all the walkers/slow runners and continuously passed people right up to the end of the race. That right there is a huge boost in ego, just like Knapp stated. It just gave me a sense of accomplishment, like, "look at all these people tuckered out already and I'm just getting started!" It was a really good way to get me motivated to keep pushing on. Half-way into the race, there was a really long stretch of beautiful ocean views, this is where I got my 'runners high' and was feeling so good. It was such a beautiful day for a run. The only thing that could have made it better is was if it was less windy, I was running against the wind at certain points, which was kind of annoying.

I hit sort of a wall at around 9 miles in where I wanted to slow down, but I just told myself it would pass and to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I reached the 10 mile mark at 1:48, which I was pumped about so that put a little extra gas in my tank for me to push it to the end. When I finally reached the big ass hill, I felt awesome because there were loads of spectators there to cheer us on. I was taking huge strides down the hill, passing people left and right. I saw Pat, Pat's dad and Kevin on the side lines. Kev gave me a high five and told me there was only a quarter mile left! I was so happy that I started a small sprint down the rest of the hill. When I made it to the beach I saw Lauren and here mom and sister who cheered me on, and Knapp gave me a shout out too, which gave me that extra little push I needed to power it out to the finish line. That is what's so great about being at the end of the pack. Knowing that my friends are there to cheer me on to the finish is such an awesome feeling. I like being slow, especially for that reason :P.

After I finished, I did a little victory dance, and of course, gave a thumbs up for the photographer. I grabbed a water, that shiny foil blanket thingy, and my medal and headed out to find the rest of the crew.

All in all, I am really happy with how the entire thing went, even with the late/shaky start. I'm happy with my time, I reached my goal, and I'm looking forward to more half marathons in the future. Who knows, maybe I'll even try for a marathon eventually!

If you had told me back in May that I would complete a half marathon by October, I would have laughed in your face and called you a retard. But. I'm happy I did it, and I'm really glad Tang got us all together and motivated us to reach this point. Thanks coach!