Remember how excited I was about the Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon? Remember how I had super ambitious goals for myself?
Yeah, that race kicked my butt. Serious butt kickage. Look how happy we were before the race started! So naive as to the impending pain to come…
By mile 8, I was in extreme pain and questioning my own sanity.
Why did I decide to do this?
Should I walk?
Why does my knee hurt so badly?
At one point, Jason caught up to me and said, “How are you doing?”
I replied, “If I don’t slow down I’m not gonna finish.” It was a very true statement. That was the last time I saw him.
He replied with something along the lines of, “Yeah, my legs are dead” and then off he went. I watched him until I lost him in the crowd and I was officially on my own.
Somewhere around mile 10 my thoughts escalated in severity to:
Is it socially unacceptable to cry while I run?
During mile 11 we had to run over a bridge which brought along with it, a literal uphill battle.
Am I going to die?
My pace slowed to a near crawl and by the time I hit the 13 mile marker, I was ready to give up running all together.
Finally, after 2 hours and 10 minutes I crossed the finish line where I was met by a young man named David who, I think, sensed the possibility of my collapse in the finish chute. He grabbed my arm, got me a bottle of water, found me find a finisher medal and helped me walk around until my heart rate slowed down to somewhere near normal.
After the race we all walked, I mean hobbled, to the beach where we lounged, drank a beer (or three), took a nap, and frolicked, painfully, in the ocean.
I use the phrase “Am I going to die?” lightly. Actually, someone did die during the race, a very sobering reminder of the severity of what I am doing.
Overall, I think it was a good preview as to what it’s gonna take for me to finish the marathon. It also taught me that I am nowhere near ready. I’ve really got to step up my training if I have a prayer of finishing. I plan on allowing my legs to rest one more day and then back into training tomorrow!
A lot more happened on our trip but I will save that for a blog post tomorrow!