Well folks here it is RACE DAY!
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| The Start Line of the Nike Women's Marathon 2012 a race to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society |
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| Deb & I in our Corral before the race |
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| Deb & Kathy before the race |
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| Start of the race...PEOPLE as far as you can see and beyond |
The race started out slow, because there were just so many people 35,000 people to be exact. Not including all the spectators along the way. The first 5 miles flew by like they were nothing. I even took pictures along the way. It was very foggy so there wasn't a whole lot to see, but None the less I took photos.
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| Just before mile 2 |
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| Ship docked at the Wharf about mile 3 |
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| Along the Wharf |
Before I knew I was just before Mile 5 and the first of many hills to come that would really test my strength, my training, and my will power to finish this race. This was a filler, but the worst was yet to come.
MILE 6!!!
That is a true test of any ones strength. The point were you look at yourself and second guess WHY you did this to yourself. It was the longest steepest soul dragging hill I have ever seen, and All I kept trying to do was put one foot in front of the other. About half way up I remember seeing someone that looked like one of my past coaches..Coach Laura. I've mentioned her before an a few of my past post. Then out of nowhere another coach yells out Ladies "SWING THOSE ARMS".. all of a sudden like out of no where I felt the power to keep going up this hill. Now mind you this was a LONG steady climb for pretty much an entire mile. I had to dig deep and find motivation more than once. When it got hard and thoughts of just stopping and letting the bug pick me up snuck into my head, I remembered WHY I started this journey. I remembered Talia who is at home in the hospital, Jacob, and I kept seeing that beautiful little face of a sweet Angel named LILLY and felt the encouragement of Christian. They truly did help push me through several times.
Some photos along the way:
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| Love This sign!!! |
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| Sign Along the way lol!! |
Just after Mile 10
THE FINISH!!!!! 13.1
When I finally reached mile 10 I thought my legs were going to fall off. Not because of the long miles, but those hills really kicked my butt. I started to slow down a lot. I was on track to finish this race in under 4:00 which would have been a PR (personal record) for me. Which considering where I was would have been amazing. My legs had another time in mind. It took all I could give to just keep putting that one foot in front of the other. At mile 11 I wasn't any better. It was so strange though because overall I felt good. I wasn't tired or winded, my mind was in a great place. I felt good! It was my LEGS however that were taking control, and they were saying they had enough!!!! My ankle was selling my calves rock solid and my upper thighs felt like they were on fire. FIRE!! WAIT!!! Fire= Firemen...FIREMEN = Tiffany Necklace. All This = FINISH LINE!!!! MUST KEEP GOING!!!!
At Mile 12.5 I could finally see the finish line, and I knew I was going to make it. This is when my teammate Patrice caught up to me. Thank goodness for her. because even though I knew I was almost there my very sore legs still wanted to go cry in a corner somewhere. She looked at me and said "come on 25 steps fast" and that's what I did ran 25 seconds... then "45 slow" that was all I need to get me to the point where I was ready to RUN across that finish line, and Run I did.
I DID IT!!!!!
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| Finish line photo |
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| The Fireman Who gave me my Tiffany &Co. Finishers Me |
Mile 2 Video
MILE 6 Video
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