I made it! Jelly beans and spit balls....

Well, I survived the run. I'm not quite sure how I did it but I surpassed my goal of six miles and ran the whole darn thing---ever so slowly, but running all the same! I finished in 2:34:16 and placed 6494 out of 9386. I hit my goal point and thought I might as well run the whole thing...much cooler, I thought, to be able to say I ran the whole thing instead of running only half. Overall it was a really great experience. It was way better than I imagined it. It is amazing how running with that manny people (14 thousand) gives you this momentum you didn't know you had in you . I can totally see how people can get addicted to it. Would you say I was bitten by the rush? that would be a resounding "No." But did I really enjoy it and am I glad I did it? Absolutely!

Things that made the experience a little less enjoyable:

1. My IPOD bit the dust half way through so I was forced to run listening to other people's convo's and other annoying habits (I will get to in a bit) rather than my ever motivating Kanye West; however, on the bright side it was sorta fun to hear the people cheering .

2. Another thing that made it a little less enjoyable---getting stuck running with a guy behind me who was spitting large spit wads the whole time! Seriously every minute a new one would form. I was making disgusting faces to let him know I was not down with it, but unfortunately he was behind me and couldn't see through my head to see the "that's nasty" face. Tim said he was having to spit a lot due to his allergies. I told him I was glad we did not run together. Better to be annoyed by faceless stranger than by husband during race. I was able to sprint ahead from time to time to get away from him but he kept finding me. Owell. I'm sure he could not help it. It's just that you get into a rhythm and it's quiet and everyone is just running and then you have spit man ruining both of those things for you. Next time (if there is a next time) I will come better prepared with music that works.

3. The last not so fun thing...it was damp, and rainy, and chilly during the race. But on the brightside, it was not 90 degrees and blindingly sunny.

4. Somehow I thought the race was 12 miles. One might think you would get that straight before you started the race but not me. I didn't realize it was 13.1 miles until I came to mile marker 12 and people were still running.... STILL RUNNING! I think I picked up my pace then, somehow, because I was just ready to be done [but in a good way, again, it was fun...or not so fun really but an accomplishment, a mission to accomplish, i guess.]

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Luckily those are the only negatives that I have from the race. Everything else about it was great. It felt really good to push myself and utilize the whole mind over matter thing. I kept telling myself if I could get over my extreme fear of everything medical and anything blood related and graduate from nursing school I sure as heck could suck it up and run the whole race.

One glorious moment during the run was getting "sport beans" handed to me while running. (they have volunteers that stand on the side of the road and hand out water, oranges, sport beans, etc while you run). I got the sport beans [jelly beans with caffine] at mile 8 and let me tell you they were the most glorious things I'd ever had. They not only tasted delicious but they gave me something to do besides just running. I could focus on them and savor each one in my mouth...until i ran out. The rest of the race continued with thoughts like these, "YES! I see more people ahead...maybe they have more sport beans!" [they didn't]..."there's a package of them on the ground...should i turn around and pick it up and eat them? would that be gross?"..."there's tons of wasted sport beans on the ground! what the? who would do that? waste sport beans? i love them!" and the thoughts continued until I could see the finish line. Sport beans were really my only thoughts, how to find them, who might have some, different flavors i might enjoy, why they aren't handing them out anymore, etc. Finally after the finish line they were handing them out. Unfortunately, I didn't want them then.

You can see Alex was pretty cold and had to wear my sweatshirt when she and Tim's mom came to meet us at the finish line. Oh, and let me tell you finding your 'group' [tim'smom, tim, and alex] amongst 14 thousand + people is not an easy task. We were told there would be letters of the Alphabet posted up so you could meet your fam at a designated letter of your choice. So, when the race was finished I went searching...no letters! Not a one! I finally sought shelter in a the warm convention center and gathered my thoughts on how to find them and where to station myself so I wasn'twandering around hoping for luck to take me to them. I asked a girl who looked equally as concerned, standing by herself...This is a little bit how the converstation went. It should be noted first that she was not aware of the "meet your group by a designated letter" plan.

Me: "have you seen the letters of the alphabet anywhere?"

girl: "excuse me? the what?" with very confused 'what are saying idiot girl' face

me: "oh, sorry. the letters. you know, we were told to find the letters, pick one out and stand by it?"

girl: confused look, feeling sorry for delerious girl rambling about alphabet letters and finding them

me: start laughing at the ridiculousness, then somehow, i am able to form a somewhat coherent sentance and explain what the hell I'm talking about.

girl: smiles because she finally gets what i'm talking about [i think?] and says, "i didn't know anything about that but i can't find my group either."

Then, I look out the door and there they were! My group!

Me: there's my group! bye!

girl : oh, ok, bye!

me: walking away thinking I'd never had a more bizarre conversation in my life! at least i have never been on the side that was making absolutely no sense and couldn't form a normal sentance to explain my plight for alphabet letters. Jeeesh!

So, several people have asked if I'll do it again next year. I'm not sure. Probably not but maybe. Might do one somewhere else. Would like to do one with a friend, a slow friend. T will probably not do another one because of his wretched knees. Might go cheer for people at one...that might be fun.

One thing is for sure, if I do another one, I will definately be wearing my Grandpa's 'hat' again...Man, talk about the luck! It carried me through to the finish line only having to have stopped once the whole time [to use the restroom!] Amazing!