San Antonio Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon 11/15/09

Theres more from this race that I have to talk about that can be put in one post, so Ill probably write more than one. For this one Ill concentrate on the race itself, how it went and how we did. What I learned and thought about during this race really needs its own seperate post.

Like almost every race Ive run, this one was full of firsts. Although I have run a race at this distance once already, this was my first time running a half marathon as a part of a larger full marathon. The one 1/2 marathon Ive done shut down a piece of one major road to make a large loop, this marathon shut down the better part of the entire downtown San Antonio area. It was also the first time I have ever run with that many people, over 30,000. Another first for me was running a race of this distance with my sister, who was running her longest distance ever. It was so cool to be able to experience this with her in so many ways. She has been such an inspiration and cheerleader as Ive gone on this running and weight loss journey, that it was really special to get to do something this monumental together. It was also very cool because it was the first time that we had run a race together as equals. In the past, Jill was the much more in shape, much more experienced runner, and she was always tasked with pulling me along with her. This time, we were both on equal footing and were able to encourage each other equally, which made it so cool. This was also a big culmination for my running partner, Anne. We started running together in the middle of the summer, literally on pure chance one morning on a long run. The head of our training group said, "find someone who runs your pace and just stick with them," Anne just happened to be running next to me at that moment and said "how about you?" and weve been running roughly 5 days a week together ever since. This race was Anne's goal, and she killed it.

Sunday morning started EARLY. Up at 4:30 to head down to the fruit and juice bar that our hotel was setting up early for the runners. I figured I would get there and be the only one, but there were close to a dozen other people up and stocking up on bananas and bagels, and anything else that looked good. If Ive learned anything about runners, they like their freebies. Jill woke up soon after and we snacked on our peanut butter toast and bananas as we both hoped for our "natural processes" to kick in so that we would have that out of the way before the race. Im pretty sure we were both succesful, but I digress. Being truly our father's children, we had laid everything out the night before and getting ready for the race was a short process. We planned to meet Anne at 5:30 to try and get on the shuttle to the start, but if it was too packed, Anne's fiance, Jeff, was on call to drive us as close as he could to the start. Luckily the shuttle was running extremely smoothe and we got on in plenty of time with no trouble. Its really funny to watch people who are about to endure the kind of punishment a half or especially a full marathon is going to put on them. Everyone was mostly calm, but with an eager anticipation that was noticeable on pretty much everyone.

As soon as we arrived at the starting village, port-a-potty fest 2009 began for both Jill and Anne. Jill, bless her heart, has the bladder of someone who has had two babies within a year and a half of each other, and Anne was somehow born without a human bladder, so the port-a-potty situation was of prime importance to them both. Luckily there were plenty available, and lines were more or less manageable. The only potty stress came when Anne decided to use the bathroom for the 3rd time about 20 minutes before the race began and didnt make it back to our starting position until after the National Anthem. I think she just wanted to see if I would actually have a heart attack BEFORE the race started. She never made it to the bathroom that third time, but she made it back to us and all was well.

As we knew it would, it took about 1/2 an hour after the gun went of for us to cross the starting line, but when we did it was quite the exhilerating feeling. It was hot and humid and far from ideal, but we all felt like kings and queens as we crossed the starting line. It was electric, just running with all of those people is unlike any feeling in the world.

Its kind of hard to remember every detail from then on, so Ill hit some highlights:
-Around mile 6 we ran by a store of some kind that was loudly playing a recording of some Army or Marine cadets doing a call and response cadence. It definitely pumped us up and gave us all chills. You could literally hear their dogtags jingling on the recording, both an exciting and touching moment.

-There were lots of signs along the road from fans, but these were some of my favorites:
Pain is temporary, but pride is forever (we may even put that on a shirt)
Your feet hurt because youre kicking so much A$$
Finishing is your only damn option
You paid to run?

-My sister has this great quality that when she is running, or tired in general, and she sees anything that is the least bit touching, she bursts into tears, literally. She doesnt get a little teary or choked up, she has the full blown balling moment. It comes and goes very quickly, but she cant contain it. There were lots of shirts of people running for different causes, or in memory of someone or something, and every time we would pass one, Jill would burst into tears, and then she'd get a boost from it. Its really pretty cool.

-Anne has been suffering from some kind of knee pain for the last month or so, whenever we would run longer than 7 or 8 miles. We were both hopeful that the adreneline and the grandeur of the event would keep the pain at bay, but she wasnt so lucky. But let me just tell you, Anne is one tough cookie. I could tell about mile 9 that Anne was hurting (come to find out she started hurting at about mile 6) because she got very quiet and seemed a little more serious. What she didnt do was slow down or complain one bit. At one point I just said to her, "Anne, I know youre hurting, but you are doing amazing," and she was. At mile 10.5 when we split from the full marathoners, she even joked that she was just going to go ahead and run the 26.2, which is when I knew she was going to make it the whole way. I couldnt be more proud of her. I hate that she had to be in so much pain, but she's my hero for really gutting that out.

-As Ive already alluded to, crossing the finish line with my sister was really special. She just means the world to me, and I cant think of anyone I would have rather done this with. It is worth noting that we were both so delirious at the end of the race that we almost walked by all of the people handing out finishers medals, that would have been rather dissapointing :)

-Not exactly an enjoyable moment, but looking back its pretty funny. We had to walk probably in the neighborhood of 3/4 to one mile to our car after the race, and you would have thought that it was 3 90 year olds trying to walk down the street. We were walking slooooow, but we all said several times how we were giving it everything we had just to maintain a walking pace. In the future Ill remember, stretching is goood.

There is so much more that I want to write about, but again, Ill save it for another post. We all three finished in 2:35 minutes, almost on the nose. It was hot, it was painful, it was amazing. It sounds cheesy to say, but even though several thousand people finished before we did, I felt like the three of us were the big winners that day.