So apparently it takes running a half marathon with my mom to get me out of blogging hibernation. I'm envious when I read other blogger's posts that are short, sweet and to the point. And then I think why couldn't I just take 15 minutes and write something like that? Um, because I don't feel like a natural writer and feel like its not worth it if I don't say EVERYTHING on my mind. And it takes me like two hours to write anything.
On January 1 I was sitting at Barnes and Noble in Green Bay while Chad and Megan were at the Packer game. I figured I'd be nice and drop them off and pick them up close to the stadium so Megan didn't have to walk a mile all bundled up. Nice right? Anyway, I sat and B&N and tried to plan out a running schedule for the first few months of the year. I had just been registered by a friend for the Capital City Half Marathon in Columbus and was looking at the CGBM website. Somehow I talked to my mom, I wish I could remember how the conversation went, but all I know is that we were both registered for the half marathon before I left B&N. And I emailed her the half training plans I followed the year before. No worries, we've got time.
And so I kept training. And she trained. I did Seroogy's 15K (painfully cold and hard), we both did the Point Bock 5 miler and kept training. Somewhere along the way her knee started hurting. We did an 8 miler together on vacation in Outer Banks. We ended up running 5 and run/walking the rest. No worries, its all about logging the miles. Somewhere around mid March I was so sick of my training. I was ready to get these two upcoming half marathons over with. Its crazy, because it seems when I get to that point in training I always get sick of it. Add to that a house remodel, vacation, considering a job change and its no wonder, I was probably feeling overwhelmed. But then something happens that makes me enjoy it again. A good run, a run with a friend, run with my mom, a run in the moonlight with a headlamp - whatevs, the important part is I start to enjoy running again along with the feeling of strength and peace that comes from it.
Back to that knee...yes I was a little worried. Wasn't my knee, but still I was worried. I had decided Columbus would be my A race (cough, cough, another post, a 2:24 finish that felt harder than my 8 minute faster PR) and I would enjoy running Green Bay with my mom. Unless she went and got super fast on me in which case I'd kill myself trying to keep up.
Well, guess what? We finished! Together. Our official time WAS on the race website with a time of 2:48:15 (mom) and 2:48:16 (me). This is no doubt the most enjoyable half marathon I've ever completed. Excessive heat included. Turns out our times aren't official because we finished after the race organizers called the race due to heat and lack of emergency resources. I'm still calling it good. Sometime, I think on the way up to GB the morning of the run, she told me she wanted to finish in 3 hours or less. I'm thinking, yeah, no problem, we are going for 2:45. The girl with no plan had a goal, it was time to come up with the plan. Which was run more than walk, walk through the water stops and no walking UP the hills.
We were late jumping in the starting line because the lines for the johns were so long. I didn't care, I really had to pee. I didn't feel stressed at all, just excited and curious to see what it'd be like to do a half marathon and not try to go as hard as I could. Oh - and be doing this with my mom. How cool is that? We needn't worry about starting 8 minutes after the gun went off, we jumped in line to cross the start and still had to wait. No corrals, everyone just got in line and started shuffling.
Our first mile was a 11:15 split, hey, not bad, if we keep this up we'll hit 2:30 no problem. It was fun to see Myriah and fam during the first mile. Our 5 mile split was 59:something. Our 10 mile split was 2:05 something. I think it was somewhere between 5 and 6 miles that we saw the first few ambulances drive through the crowd. One lady was running with headphones and as the ambulance came up behind her she almost jumped off the road. It was kind of funny, although I'm sure took a bunch of energy out of her. It still wasn't really hitting me that people were struggling that much. Yeah, it was hot and I was sweaty (liquid awesome) but I was feeling good and mom seemed to be feeling alright too. She was running through all the sprinklers and we really were mostly still running. I knew we'd see two friendly faces of Tom and Mary Anne Quinn around mile 7 so I was really looking forward to that. We stopped and Tom took a picture of us, pretty cool, I hope it turns out! There was a hill leading up to that turn and I was like come on mom, let's run the hill, we can walk once we get to the top if we need to. Lots of walkers at that point and I wasn't about to let the hill chew up some of that time. She said she'd try and aside from the picture we sure made it. About a mile later we come up on this young looking guy who asks me what mile we are at and how long we've been out there. We started chatting with him (yeah, longer walk break than I anticipated) and found out that he's 25, works at Kohler, his dad was running and talked him into running too. Except this dude said he hasn't trained. At all. I think he had on basketball shorts and a regular old cotton tshirt and all I was thinking was chaffage.
We soldiered on and not once did I think my mom was hurting that bad. Every time I'd pick a new vantage point and say how about we run to here and then reevaluate, she was mostly game. A few times she wasn't sure so we slowed down but kept running. And I was feeling awesome. Hot, but good. So, this is how I can enjoy a half marathon and not be cursing life by mile 10. We just pass mile 11 and some guy is yelling that the marathon course is shut down. So I was thinking just the full marathon was shut down. Then he says something about stopping at the next water stop and a bus will come pick you up and take you to the finish line. Ha - right - did he really mean that when we were so close to the finish? Not happening. We kept on moving and by this time there were definitely more walkers than runners. Mile 13 was our slowest at a 14:21 pace, but we kept moving and even had a little push to cross the finish line.
How many people can say they ran a half marathon with their mom? I can. It's pretty cool and I'm really proud of both of us. I've learned something different from each half marathon I've done and this one is no different. It was super fun to encourage someone else to the finish - although I have NO doubt in my mind that she would have made it to the finish without me. I was just hoping I wasn't annoying when I kept saying come on, next corner, we can make it. Silver car parked up there, we can make it. Up that hill, we can make it. SO close, who cares if the course is shut down and there are ambulance sirens wailing everywhere, we can make it. I sometimes think I lack mental toughness, especially when it comes to running, but after Sunday - there's no way, I come by some genetically.
Yay mom! What's next for us? A couple of years ago I started running again. I've done ToughMudder with my dad and brother and a half marathon with my mom. I know there's a finite amount of time we'll be able to do this kind of thing together and I am enjoying it while it lasts. Also makes me realize how much I want to stay healthy and active so I'm able to enjoy these things with my kid someday.
Peace.
