6:15am This isn't nearly as awful as getting up for the marathon. I stayed in bed and played on my computer for a while, then had my pre-race breakfast of yogurt and chocolate chips.
7:45am It's a good thing I live so close to the start line. I headed over to the back side of Lake Nokomis, where I would leave my car. The plan was to take a shuttle back and then meet friends for brunch.
8-ish The start line is a blur.
8:37am is when I crossed the start line.
About two seconds later: Oh my gosh, that's Heather cheering for me! Sweet! She had her kids there too, more on that later.
About a mile after that: Oh, look, there's Beth and Robin. I wonder if they know Heather's here. I cannot coordinate right now. Plus, since they were in separate places, more cheering for me.
Lake Nokomis, miles 1-3: Ok, this pacer is way less crazy than the last one. We had a good run around the lake, enjoyed the spectators. Then, peeling off the lake we went up 50th street which is a "speed bump" in runners terms but super steep. Good thing I did all those hill runs. I saw Heather and the kids again at the top of that hill and gave her my gloves.
Minnehaha Parkway: Oh, look, there's Beth and Robin again. I do believe they have bags of donuts from Mel-o-Glaze. Niiiice. I loved the lines of cars at all the intersections waiting to cross. Bloomington Ave had the longest line by far. There was only one part of the parkway, the rolling hills between Lyndale and Lake Harriet, that I said to the pacer, "please, just keep talking" and she did. I was freezing by this point. I've never run this far in temperatures this cold.
Lake Harriet: All of you 10-mile people suck. Why? Because I knew that I still had to go around Lake Calhoun and they were almost done. Minnehaha Parkway was cold but Lake Harriet was ridiculous with the wind coming off the water. I couldn't feel my fingers as I was trying to open my gel pack. Oh, sweet there's Heather again! Followed by the more important though, please, can I have my gloves back.
Lake Calhoun: This was definitely the place I had a mental block about. Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles just aren't my favorite lakes (usually because if I'm going to get sick on a run, I do it there). The pacer kept telling us we had a 20 second or so cushion on our pace time and we could walk longer in water stops. In my pace group I found a girl who remembered running the Minneapolis Half with me in 2009, then I met another girl named Lisa who had also run Twin Cities and we talked about that. Around the top of Lake Calhoun Lisa and I started to pull away from the pace group. (That's right, not get dropped, pull ahead.)
Mile 12: Around the bottom of Lake Calhoun I saw Heather again and could only say, "hug?" which she obliged. Oh, wow, when I hug a friend, she physically holds me up for a minute. Thank goodness 'cause I'm about to fall down.
Bringing it home: I think there's a rule that all Team Ortho races finish with an up-hill section in the last half mile. Seriously. Again, thanks for the hill runs because Lisa and I popped right up that last hill and then gunned it to the end.
I knocked 8:20 (read eight minutes and twenty seconds) off my time from last year. Sweet! (I guess the St Paul girls were right when they told me I could pull that pace for a half-marathon.)
After the race: This is really where all hell broke loose. I got my medal and then it broke. I went to go get post race food and found a banana and no water. I went to get my clothes and there was no place to change. Did I mention I was freezing? And then I saw the line for the shuttle back to Lake Nokomis. Well, that was poor planning by the race organizers. I wound up walking back to my house where there was no car, wallet or phone to take a shower and eat. There was no hot water in my shower. I am so freaking cold! I dried my hair. Drying my hair now results in a style that shouldn't happen again. Ever. I checked, sadly I couldn't find a neighbor home to drag my ass back to my car. I made the right decision to not wait for the shuttle. I was a 40 minute walk home (yes, after I finished a half marathon) but my friends waited about two hours for the shuttle. I had lunch and lazed around for a while before walking to pick up my car. I missed brunch with my friends.
Final thoughts:
- I don't think I realized that I was kind of disappointed with my results at the marathon until I enjoyed such great success today. (Seriously, 8:20 faster than last year is a lot.) It was mentally really hard at the end but I'm glad I stuck with it.
- I am glad the St Paul ladies believed I could keep that pace. I never would have tried it without their encouragement. Thank you!
- What a wonderful surprise to have Beth, Robin, Heather and Heather's kids who had great smiles every time I saw them. My pace group was jealous of my cheering section. I was thrilled.
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