If you’re reading this then it must mean I survived my first ever plunge into the world of racing. Not only did I survive but I’ve recovered enough to share what it was like. I wanted to wait until the race pictures came out but obviously my checking the website every 3 minutes for updates isn’t going to produce the pictures any faster so that will just have to wait!

(hold on, let me go check one last time……)

Dammit!

First off let me just quickly name off a few of the emotions I felt during yesterday’s half marathon walk:

• Nervous
• Excited
• Curious
• Awe
• Amazement
• Thrilled
• Tired
• Successful

Oh I’m sure there are a million more I could add to that list but I’ll just leave it at that. It was awesome! AWESOME! When I first got there I just stood in the middle of everyone and took in what I could. There was so much activity. People stretching and pinning numbers like you wouldn’t believe. People snapping up last minute photos and getting their iPods cued. Getting ready to move!

I was one of them!

Don’t ask why my mouth is open.

I don’t know.

A funny little story: I put this shirt on early in the morning while still at my friend’s house. It’s the tightest thing I’ve put on since December 2009 (I’m still struggling with wearing tighter fitting clothes) and I stood in the bathroom for close to 20 minutes looking at the differences in my body.  When I turn sideways my shirt is almost flat (minus the boobage of course). I may have to wear this shirt more often just to get used to the idea of having a smaller sized body.

But I digress.

Since we were walking the marathon, we decided to hang back at the end of the pack to let the runners go. The full marathoners had left 30 minutes prior to us but there were still a large number of half marathon runners and I didn’t want to get trampled on. As soon as all the runners had left us in their dust we commenced our walking. Immediately we had to pick out  the person we were not going to let beat us no matter how fast they walked. It wasn’t hard to decide who would be our victim:

That’s right, we picked the “tiara” lady!

Seriously, you don’t want to be beat by someone in a tiara right? Off we go! Not really too much to report while we were walking. I mean, we’re walking. Fast! It wasn’t until the 6 mile mark that it got pretty dang cool. The marathoners were coming back towards us (they had just completed mile 18) and the rest of the route we shared. So I got to actually see full on marathoners for the last 7 miles. This race was a Boston Marathon race qualifier so lots of runners.  It was freakin awesome!! We became a small cheering squad every time a runner passed us. I was silently thinking to myself  “some day” and watching the gaits of each person. I didn’t really learn too much but it was cool to think about the possibilities.

My official time was 3:27:23 – Not bad.

As we got about 3/4 of a mile away from the finish, Tiara decided to run a little. It was cool cause it motivated my friends to run too. I didn’t run as much as I wanted (since I started with my friends and would end with my friends) so the last bit of the race was the high light for me. They kept wanting to walk but I said, “Start strong, End Strong” and it kept them going. I didn’t run as fast as I would have liked but when I crossed that finish line, I did so as a runner and that’s all that matters.

I’m really impressed at all the people that came out to watch the race. Everyone was so supportive. I just had no idea of the cult like following. People had sprinklers on and home made mist machines (hoses tied to dowels). Kids had set up their own water stations and people all along the route were out there cheering even us walkers.

I snapped a few of them:

Cause seriously who doesn’t like a little organ music to keep you moving?

Life is always better with more cowbell!

These guys were my favorite. Mile marker 11. They had beer.

I tried to take a picture of the finish line as I crossed over:

I call it my art nouveau.

So I had to go back to mile marker 13

And my favorite:

The race is over and I am  sitting down!

Now I’m focused on the Great Kilted Run taking place this Saturday. My first 5k. I’ve waited a long time for this to happen and to say I’m nervous is an understatement. I know what to expect when I get there (except this time everyone will be in kilts/plaid skirts). I’m running with a good friend who will keep me encouraged (right Elizabeth???) and I will do two things:

I will start strong.

I will end strong.

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Now before I talk about this super fast mile, I want to give a little background info. I’ve had numerous cancellations from Superman this past week and it’s been a little more than frustrating. Frustrating on many different levels. I was anticipating seeing him this morning and with all that had happened this weekend: race, reaching the -50 pound mark, I was super stoked. Right as I pulled into the parking lot, there was a message waiting for me on my phone.

Yep, canceled again.

I was mad at Superman. I was disappointed because for the third time in a week I was being canceled. I didn’t want to take it personal but I couldn’t help it. I left him a message saying that meeting tomorrow would be fine but if he wanted to wait until Thursday so he could rest up I wouldn’t mind. I decided that I didn’t want to be mad at him until I could figure out what was going on with all the cancellations so I took my anger to the treadmill.

I ran.

Despite the soreness of yesterdays walk. I ran as fast as I could go, and then I ran faster.  I saw 6.9 mph on the treadmill and it was fantastic. All of a sudden I wasn’t angry anymore. I was so happy at what I was doing on the treadmill that I couldn’t think about anything else. I was breathing hard, I was running hard. I watched the distance zoom by. I imagined what it would be like to run this fast outside. I promised myself it would happen some day.

The mile came and went in a flurry of emotions.

10:50

That’s a super fast mile.

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After I ran that mile, I asked one of the other trainers if everything was okay with Superman (he didn’t really say much in his message except that he wasn’t feeling well). To which I get the following sentence:

“His tumor is causing him to have a lot of migraines right now”

I guess maybe this trainer thought I knew cause it just rolled off his tongue like it was everyday news. How do I even take that info in? I’m not sure what I said in response but I felt like an ass for being mad at him this morning. I waited a couple of hours and called him back to confirm whether we were indeed meeting tomorrow. He answered the phone (which he never does).

Him: Hey Tara

Me: I am really okay if you want to wait until Thursday so you can rest up.

Him: Absolutely not.

Me: I was a little frustrated with the cancellation this morning so just for you I ran a 10:50 mile.

Him: Good cause we’re going to start working toward an 8:00 mile.

I will never ever complain if he cancels again.