St. Jude's Marathon

Race day!  The race started at 8:00, which is actually super late for a marathon.  Britt and I are total early birds, so we arrived on Beale St. at the start like an hour early.  We walked around, used the bathroom, and wasted time. 

Corral #2; where we were supposed to start.



Too much time on our hands.

My feet firmly planted on Beale.

Our throw-away pants are pretty fantastic.

The Gibson guitar store.  Holla.

When we finally made it to Auto Zone Park for bag drop we were getting pretty close to race time and I kind of freaked out when I saw the line.  Everyone had to go through security before entering the park.  Yikes!

Just another line to stand in...

Once we finally made it into the park and dropped off our bags, we should have run straight to the start.  But we came upon a single bathroom that had a line of like 3 people and we were super tempted to use it one last time before the race.  As we stood in line the starting time crept closer and closer.  I was freaking out.

As we finally headed toward the start, we realized we were not going to make it to our corral on time so we just jumped in the crowd.  We ended up in corral 12.  What????  That's when we realized they were doing a staggered start.  At 8:00 they released corral #1, which was the elite runners.  Then every two minutes they released another corral.  That meant it was going to be more than 20 minutes before we started if we stayed put!  I was not having that.  So we jumped out of line and pushed our way to corral #3 and were able to start only slightly behind our pace.  Phew!

The race started out like most do: it was a huge cluster.  We were behind the 3:35 pace group which made me panic even more because our goal time was 3:20.  It is such a psych out to be that far back at the beginning.  This was not a great way to start.

The first few miles went through downtown, which was cool and there were lots of people cheering.  Note, I did not have my personal photographer at the race, so the following photos are clearly stolen from online.  I know, I'm a terrible person.  Deal with it.



Stressing in the crowd.



Of course we made it through the crowd within about 6 miles and I started to relax. Sort of.

 

Here's the thing; a 3:20 marathon ends up being a 7:38 pace per mile.  It is hard to relax into a pace like that.  I tried to take my mind off the pace by focusing on the race.  This was a race like none I've run.  Because it was for St. Jude, there were reminders of the patients all over.  Each mile marker had the name and face of a child who is fighting cancer.  They also had a letter of the alphabet for each mile with a sign made by that child.  So, mile 14 was N for "the Nurses who take care of me".  It was so inspiring and seriously heartbreaking. 

 

The one that really stuck with me was I - "Imagine my brain tumor gone".  Seriously.  It made the ache in my legs feel like nothing to complain about.  I tried to focus each mile on the child, rather than myself.

 

At mile 20, after a few miles of Britt being a step ahead of me, I told her to go on.  She'd trained way too hard for that 3:20 to let me hold her back.  She slowly pulled away and I kept her in my sights for several more miles.  But I just felt totally used up.  My pace slowed, but I didn't walk. 

 

At mile 25 the 3:25 pacers passed me.  That didn't feel good.  Especially when they started yelling at me to hurry up.  I don't respond well to yelling, especially at mile 25.  I tried to let them get ahead of me, but the dudes just kept turning around and yelling at me.  Grrrrr...



Finally I had the finish line in sight.  I totally geeked out when I saw my favorite KC running blogger Allie at the finish.  She's super cute and freaking-fast.  Here I am waving to her;

Hi!



I feel like I've never been so happy to finish a race.  I realize that I probably forget just how intense the finish is in every race, but this one just felt like it was everything in me.  Everything.  I was empty.

 

So happy to be done!

 

 

I ended up finishing in 3:24:something.  It's a time I'm very proud of and one I feel I deserve.  Plus, did I mention this was state #12?!?  Only 38 to go!

 

The post race was a tad annoying.  We finished in the stadium and to get out we had to walk up all the steps.  I was literally pulling myself up by the railing.  This is a mean trick to play on runners.  Then we had to wait in line for what seemed like eternity for the food.  Grrrr...

 

I desperately wanted to use my beer tickets, but the beer was on the other side of the stadium and by that time we were freezing.  So we grabbed our bags and hit the road. 



Seriously, so cold.

Post race; I'm freezing my ass off here.

 

Let's put all the stair climbing and line standing out of our minds.  This was such a great race.  The course wasn't anything special, but it was flat.  There was a good amount of crowd support for this size race and the aid stations were well stocked.  The best part was making this race about more than just getting a great time... it was about focusing on something bigger than me.  I'm so blessed to have been a part of that.