Well the long awaited Indianapolis Marathon & Half Marathon was Saturday October 18, 2008 at Fort Benjamin Harrison. I have been very nervous about this the last few months and kept wondering why I thought it was a good idea back in May when I signed up for it. I thought that I would try and follow the training program so that I would be ready for it but unfortunately I didn't do that. I wish I would have been as disciplined as my friend Tina who was also running the half marathon with me. She followed the training plan and did her 4 runs a week and made it up to her long run of 12 miles! Way to go Tina, I'm very proud of you! I ran maybe one to two times a week and the longest run that I did was an 8 mile on the treadmill. I was very disappointed in myself because when I signed up for this I planned on running the entire half marathon which is 13.1 miles. Well as it got closer and since I hadn't been doing the training program I had resigned myself in realizing that it was a very lofty goal, especially for someone who was 48 years old and didn't even start to run before April of this year. I realized that my true goal should have probably have been just to finish the half marathon, so I rethought my goal and said I just wanted to finish in less than 3 hours. Well of course in the back of my mind my first goal was still lingering. As the race got closer I had told my family that I would really like it if they could be there to cheer me on. I found out that they were also going to have a 5k race as well so I talked Ron, Dawn, Adam, Crystal, David & Cathy into doing the 5k while Tina and I did the half marathon.
Friday night we went to Olive Garden to
carb load and I think everyone that was running on Saturday was there too.
Saturday morning I got up at 5:45 so that I could get something to eat and drink some water before the run. Tina had told me that it was best to stop drinking water an hour to an hour and a half before the run so that I wouldn't have to stop during the run. Thanks for the hint Tina!
We met Tina at the parking lot at about 7:30 and headed to the start of the race. It was a little chilly, probably around 48 degrees but it was good running weather. I was getting very nervous and was stretching a little bit and jumping around a little to warm up and then my walkman stopped working. It was 3 minutes before the race and I started to panic. I thought back to how I hadn't been training like I should have and then how I didn't get out of work when I wanted to on Friday so we didn't get to eat where I had originally planned, and now my music wasn't working and thought things were just stacking against me. Then I took a deep breath and thought I could try and see if my radio still worked on my phone and then I could just listen to it. Well luck was finally on my side and my radio worked! I tuned it to 95.5 and listened to country music for the run and I felt a sigh of relief. Well now it is only 1 minute before the start and I was getting really nervous. Tina and I gave each other a big hug and wished each other luck and waited for the gun. We decided that we were going to get in the coral of the 11 minute mile since the timer didn't actually start until you crossed the starting line and then that way quite a few people could get out of the way. It was almost 4 minutes before we got to the start line (hence the reason on my finishing picture had a different time than my actual time) and got to start the run. As we started out Tina and I were looking for the family and I spotted them off to my left and I could see them standing there smiling and so I gave them a big wave and was so excited that they were there. The start of the race was very difficult because the path was a little narrow for how many people were running. There were a bunch of walkers and we couldn't get around them very easy. We finally got around some of them and started our pace. As we made our way through the Lawton loop at about a mile and a half we saw the family standing there again smiling and cheering us on. That was such a good feeling and I knew then that no matter what had happened up to that point on all my mishaps it didn't matter any more. All was good! I have to say that I felt really good 4 miles into the run and it didn't seem like I had been running for 40 minutes. At about mile 5 1/2 I came around a corner and was trying to miss a manhole cover and got bumped by someone and landed my left foot on the side of it and kind of twisted my ankle and knee. It hurt a little bit but I didn't let it stop me. I stayed with Tina for the first 6 1/2 miles but then I started falling back a little. I had told her before we started that I would stay with her as much as I could but not to wait for me if I couldn't stay with her. I know she had her own personal best that she wanted to beat as well. Tina had run the mini marathon in May and finished in 2:25 and so she wanted to finish in less than 2:15 on this one.
I was surprised that I was still running at mile 7 because the longest I had run was 8 miles so I wanted to try to at least run to that 8 mile marker. Once I got to the 8 mile marker I thought "hey, I only have 5.1 miles to go, maybe I could run a little bit more". So I sucked it up and kept running, and then about mile 9 we headed into the bike path and it was a little hilly at first. That made it very difficult because we were 9 miles into it, the good thing was that a lot of the hills were down hill runs but it was a little difficult because I kept thinking that as tired as I was I was afraid that I would trip and just fall down the hill and take out some of the other runners. Well I was tired and wasn't thinking very clearly but everyone knows what goes down must go up - RIGHT? Well up it went. At about mile 10 1/2 it was a very steep hill and it was very difficult to get up that hill. I have to say that I did walk a little bit of this hill because everyone around me was walking and I was so stinking tired and my legs were killing me. I didn't walk much of it but I can't say it was a run either but I did finally get up it. When we got to the top everyone just cheered. I'm not sure what they were thinking about having that hill so late in the run! After we got through that there was just a little over 2 miles to go. I thought that if I could just get to mile 12 that the last mile I could get through on adrenaline. Well I think I had already spent all of my adrenaline because after I reached mile 12 I really struggled to get it going. Just as I was coming up on mile 13 I saw Ron, Dawn, Adam and Cathy and they had signs that said they were proud of me and they were cheering me on and ringing a cow bell. I can't tell you how that made me feel. Even though I was exhausted I couldn't help but smile. It felt so good. I tried to kick it in the best I could but there wasn’t much left to kick in. When I got to the finish line I just threw up my hands and was so excited and then I saw Crystal cheering me on and she got a picture of me at the finish line. I ended up finishing the half marathon in 2 hours 22 minutes and 2 seconds (10:50 per mile) which was 50th in my age group out of 121 people and not to mention I met my goal of running the whole thing! Tina met her goal as well and finished in 2 hours 12 minutes and 48 seconds (10:07 per mile). Dawn finished the 5k in 39:40, Dave in 39:48, Ron in 41:07, Crystal in 47:44 and Cathy in 1:00:18. It was so great that all of us could do this together and I’m so proud of everybody and so happy that they were all there for me. I guess I’m going to try and sign up for the mini in May now, I think I'm officially hooked!
On Sunday, October 19, 2008 we decided to make our annual trip to Waterman's Pumpkin Patch. We had quite a crew this year, 22 in all!
Dawn, Adam, Alli, and Drew
Crystal, Todd, Ethan, Cassidy, Mya, Cole & Hudson 
Susannah, Jamie, Jessica, Phil, Jennifer, Chad, Breeonna, & Reagan
