Mindy and Catherine picked me up at 5:15 and we drove frantically in the dark freaked out by the detours and construction. We found Erin, and loaded the buses with no problem at all. It was warm by the time we started and a lovely down hill trot for those first 7 miles. I really let it out on the downhill and gave it a pretty good shot today. I did have to stop to use the POP at mile 10 and I stopped to drink (at the 3 stations). But normally my big weakness is the last 2 miles of any race. Not this race. I just kept saying to myself: What if I just keep running? What if I give it my best? I'd say it was an 80% effort overall, and certainly toward the end I did push the last half mile. As proof of my effort, after crossing the finish, I had to hold onto the chain link fence of finisher’s corridor as I dry heaved my way up to the chip takers. They kept yelling for people to stay in order, but at least 4 people passed me up while I was trying not to hurl in that confined a space. Of course the first 7 miles was like eating candy-- all down hill. It sure gave me a leg up when it was time to finish the race. The run was gorgeous along the creek. I truly enjoyed around mile 4 when all the excited chatter calms to the quiet, solid sound of feet hitting the pavement. That's always my favorite part of a race, when people retreat into their minds and it's just the runners, and their pure mental tenacity working their way through the miles. I passed a lot of people in this race, so I got a lot of encouraging comments from other runners "that-a-girl" "hey, no passing!" "Keep it up" "looking strong". I loved the encouragement; particularly because I was trying and it was working. I had a little trouble through mile 12, but like I said really picked it up to finish strong. The clock said 1:50 at the finish line, but I was one of the LAST people to go across the start. Finished about 3 minutes behind Cath who said we were 2-3 minutes behind the gun. So my guess is my time was 1:47/48. I'll turn this into a race report once the final numbers are in. After the race, Catherine go really sick (hyponeutremia). Her electrolytes get freaky. So we were by the ambulance for a bit with the oxygen and Gatorade. But I think she'll be ok....she does this almost every race and seems to bounce back in a few hours. In spite of Catherine's slow recovery, I got to say see many my running friends. Didn't recognize Leandra until she'd passed me after the finish! Chatted with Kellie (who's on fasciitis duty)(good girl for not running). Saw my good pals Marisa and Dave, who did awesome (in the 1:35 range), chatted a bit with MaryAnn, and best of all saw Josse and her Mama (and of course Josse's kids and sis Erika). It's funny, I was really regretting having signed up and paid for this race even as late as yesterday afternoon. I always regret paying money for a 13 mile run you can map out and do on you own for free. But you just never know what shared experiences await if you just get out there. Of course, post-race endorphins are pretty awesome too. Spits are as follows: 8:26/7:45/7:51/7:37/7:46/7:39/8:13/8:26/8:35/8:54/8:32/8:46/8:29 | 