Half Marathon...DONE!!!

...shhhhhh.... I have a secret to share.  I really didn't think that this race was a possibility....shhhh...that is only between you and I.

Pre-Race Excitement

Joking, but ABSOLUTELY serious.  I was nervous about this race.  I was one person of 11,000.  Do you know how many people that is?  Yesterday started for me at an early 3:45am.  I had to get up, get ready and get to Baltimore at a good time.  There are a couple of things that I wanted to accomplish:
 - I wanted to find a good parking spot close to the finish line so that I wouldn't have to go far to get back to the car after everything was over
 - I wanted to figure out where the start line was
 - I wanted to be up front for the singing of the National Anthem
 - I wanted to get safety pins to attach my bib to my shirt since I didn't pick up any at the Health Expo

I joined wave #5 and waited for the alarm to sound.  Because I was so far back, I couldn't hear anything, but the crowd started moving and I moved with them.  Some people started jogging but I figured, "We are nearly a quarter of a mile away from the starting line, why not wait until then to run" - which is what I did.  I started off with a light jog and then into a full press run.  I decided that I would not look back at all throughout the course of the race.  I only want to focus on what's ahead of me and not behind me.  That sort of worked up until everything was silent behind me and I started wondering if I was the last person.  I wasn't, but the 11,000 really spread out.  Around mile two, I thought that I was making a HUGE mistake.  The course was really hard.  There were so many hills at sharp inclines/declines and cross winds that nearly knocked me over.  It was crazy.  At about mile 8 and I half, I was done.  I wanted to get in someone's car and have them drive me to the finish line.  My body was in pain - my back hurt, my right lung hurt (I know, who can really feel their lung...ME) and my feet were getting sore.  I wanted to cheat to be honest with you.  Instead of going around this huge lake, I wanted to join the people who had already traveled around it.

It was good that I went around the lake because there was a paramedic station.  I ended up stopping there because my hands and arms swelled up so much that I couldn't move them, my back was super stiff and my lung hurt.  The doctor checked my lungs and said everything sounded clear (but had me take a puff of my inhaler), gave me three ibuprofen, and had me put icyhot on my back.  After that stop, I was back on  the course.  At about mile 10, I wanted to stop and just cry.  I paused, but couldn't completely stop, I couldn't.  When I was on the last stretch, mile 12, I had to fight back the tears.  In the distance, I could see the finish line and thought to myself, "Rochelle, your not a quitter anymore" and it did something to me.  I had my phone and someone sent a text that said, "The race is not given to the swift nor to the strong, but to the one who endures until the end".  They didn't know that I was walking at a snails pace when they sent that message.  They didn't know that I felt like I could not take one more step and that inside I was feeling like a complete failure because I well surpassed my goal time.  It was exactly what I needed to hear.  I had endured to the end.  I wasn't fast and my body was weak, but I endured!

I get to Camden Yard and can see the finish line.  People start cheering and I'm fighting the tears really hard now.  The photographer said, "If your going to cry, cry now.  When you get to that finish line, you run as hard as you can with the biggest smile on your face because you are almost done" and that is what I did.  I wiped my face, picked up my pace and smiled.  The cheering felt like being in an amphitheater filled with a cheering crowd and I was the star of the show.  My time?  A jaw dropping 4 hours and 48 minutes.  Am I disappointed..yes and no.  Yes because it's not the time that I wanted.  No because I didn't not quit, I did not faint.  I DID IT!!

If I could do something different, I would
 - get more than 2 hours of sleep before a big race
 - eat something so my stomach isn't completely empty
 - stretch everyday the week of the race to help my muscles
 - train harder & cross train more frequently
 - stop believing the lie that I can't do this, because clearly I can

When the official photo's are available, I will post some, but I am super proud of yesterday's accomplishment.  Now I have to recover and get to training for Disney in January.