No joke! What a busy weekend and it literally left me almost unable to walk! Angel’s brother Matthew celebrated his wedding on Saturday so we spent the entire day celebrating between the church, the reception in Gennessee, and the after party at a friend’s house in Broomfield. Only catch was that Angel, Brad and I had to wake up fairly early yesterday morning to run the Platte River Half Marathon. And for the record, we all survived and mostly did better than expected! We got down there with plenty of time–ever after Brad realized he left his number sitting on my kitchen counter–and had plenty of time to warm up. Brad was pretty nervous cause he hadn’t been feeling great in his training runs and gets pretty mad at himself when he doesn’t live up to his own expectations. Angel’s hamstring had been feeling pretty tight, and with her lack of sleep the night before, she was worried that it would tighten up and she would have to walk the entire race. I, on the other hand, simply wanted to survive, and if I was lucky, not walk! Those two are runners–that’s what they do, and they are both good at it. I figure that I like to run and its fun to give these longer distances a shot, but they are definitely not my forte–I’ll take a triathlon any day of the week 🙂
Anyway, we self seeded ourselves at the beginning with Brad near the front and Angel hanging with me in the back. Of course, she scampered off as soon as the gun sounded, but that was definitely okay–I can’t keep up with her!
Miles 1-4 were easy and everything was going great. However, I had been super lazy about my training and hadn’t really done any long runs in the past month…and my longest this spring was only 8 miles. I was concerned that it would effect me, and I guess that it kind of did. Around mile 5, I started to get a little tight in the legs and that sort of panicky feeling when you realize, “Shit! I’ve still got a long way to go and I’m already hurting!” I got lucky though, cause there were two ladies in front of me who were going my pace. I was able to tuck in behind them and the three of us ran together all the way until mile 10. Those five miles, 5-10, were my favorite part of the race. I found my stride, nothing hurt, and I felt like I could run forever. Of course, at mile 10, one of my girl pack peeled off to use the bathroom and I never saw her again. Her friend immediately slowed down and I didn’t realize it until I was almost to mile 12. I finally said goodbye to her with intentions of sprinting the last mile, but then I realized the last 3/4 mile consisted of a big hill up and over a bridge. I refer to this portion of the run as the “Death March.” I tried my damndest, but it was the one time during the race where I walked. I’m pretty convinced I had to!
At any rate, I did finish the race and ran the entire 13 miles (almost) which was really my only goal. I was around 2.5 hours which is wicked slow, but with my minimalistic training approach, that’s all I could really ask for. Angel did awesome and was only 2 minutes shy of breaking the 2 hour barrier. Brad, little Speedy Gonzales that he is, was only 3 minutes show of going under an hour and a half. I can’t even imagine running 13.1 miles at a 7-something pace but he did…and then had the audacity to tell me how mad he was that he wasn’t under the half hour mark. Boys! 🙂
The after-race party definitely made the entire run worthwhile. It was sponsored by Buckhorn Exchange so there was lots of food, and the Melting Pot even had a little platter of fondue/fruit for every runner. We ate pretty much everything and headed back north. Of course, I woke up this morning with legs like my grandmother, and I’ve had a hard time really moving all day. Walking is fine…but crouching, bending, or any other activity that requires quad strength is definitely NOT! I figure it will go away soon….until June 26 when the Lake to Lake tri rolls around. Now THAT is more my style! 🙂