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.

Walking in Memphis

For our final race-trip of the year, Britt and I headed to Memphis for the St. Jude Marathon.  We left bright and early (actually it was dark and rainy) on Friday morning for our destination.

 

Heartbreak Hotel, here we come!

Britt & I are getting pretty good at this whole road trip thing.  Along the way we have come up with some traditions.  One of those is to stop at a quaint local diner along the way to our destination.  Lucky for us our travels took us through the Ozarks.  And you don't get much more crazy quaint than the Ozarks.  We stopped at the Corner Booth Café for lunch.

Rules.

This may have been the creepiest, strangest place a person could eat.  It was like a time-warp with scary antiques, old posters, and creepy dolls covering every square inch.  Yikes!

Lunching!

It was still raining, but I made Britt stand outside and take a pic.  I think she freaked out the people at the booth inside.

Recovering from porcelain doll induced nausea.

The rest of the drive was uneventful as we made our way through Missouri and Arkansas in the rain, eventually arriving at our destination.

Uhhh... that says Memphis if you didn't know.

I didn't realize Memphis was literally on the Tennessee-Arkansas border.  Our first stop was to check in at the Heartbreak Hotel!

Hello, lover.

Unfortunately we were in a "regular" room and not across the hall in the "Burning Love" suite.  I would have just really liked to see what was in there.

Hmmmm....

We dropped off our bags and walked next door to Graceland!  Lucky for us the whole estate was decorated for Christmas!

Elvis's living room; pretty sure my mom has that same tree.

Loving the dining room! 

You know I had to get a pic in the kitchen!

I guess this would be the Man-Cave?

Green carpet on the walls - I'm totally stealing this idea for our house.

Down in the Jungle Room!

Once outside the house we were led through several more buildings on the estate that acted as more of a museum. I quickly realized that everything I know about Elvis I learned from Uncle Jesse on Full House.  It turns out Elvis was a lot more before he was wearing those crazy white jumpsuits.

Lots of jumpsuits.

Paying our respects.

The mansion and all its lights.

After finishing our tour we made our way through like 9 different gift shops.  There are some serious Elvis fans out there.

Thank you, thank you very much.

After Graceland, we had no time to waste... we had to make it to the race expo!

Is this where I check in?

The race expo was the craziest, biggest cluster I've ever seen... and let me remind you I've seen a few.  This is my 12th marathon.  We got the hell out of there and moved on to another race-trip tradition; pizza.

Brittney got a HUGE kick out of the response our Graceland tour guide gave her when she asked about the best pizza in Memphis.  The gal said you can't go wrong with Papa John's.

We ended up at Aldo Pizza.

As you might imagine, pizza joints are pretty busy the night before a marathon.  The place was packed with runners.  Being old hacks at this, we have a little trick up our sleeves.  We always shimmy up to the bar instead of waiting for a table.  This is far quicker, plus you have instant access to beer and friendly conversation with the bartender.

For some reason it also seems to be a tradition that I spill water all over myself during our trips.  I think it's a sign of good luck to come, but it sure is chilly when it happens.



I dumped this entire glass of water in my lap.

After making it safely back to Elvis & the Heartbreak Hotel, we laid out our race gear and hit the sack.

Ready to run!

Race morning came bright & early.  We headed down to the restaurant to toast our bagels and grab some coffee.  Typically when we stay at a race-sponsored hotel the restaurant is full of runners doing the same thing.  Since this wasn't a race-sponsored hotel, I expected the restaurant to be dead.  But when we walked in at 6:00 AM, the place was full.  Full of people (mostly really big people) wearing Elvis t-shirts.  What were they doing there?!?  Surely they weren't heading to Graceland this early!  That's what Britt said they were doing... who knows?

The race was perfect weather and a wonderful experience... more to come on that in another post.  Our intent was to stick around for the post-race party and enjoy the free cervezas, but we were both freezing our asses off by that point.  So we hightailed it back to our hotel for a hot shower and quick nap.

For some reason I didn't take pictures of our lunch at the Jungle Room bar at our hotel.  Bah!  You'll have to imagine in your head how classy it was...

After lunch we took a shuttle down to Sun Records, the recording studio where Elvis was discovered and the birthplace of rock & roll.  Seriously, they have a great story about how rock & roll started because one of their artists broke their amp and it made some crazy noise that turned out to be R&R.

Sun Records

This was such a cool experience!  I'm not a huge music person, but it was so interesting to hear stories and stand in the place where so much music history happened.


Inside the recording studio.

Singing into the same microphone that Elvis & Johnny Cash used!

From Sun Records we walked down to Beale Street.  We kept hearing about the marching ducks at the Peabody Hotel, but we missed their performance.  The front desk lady let us go up to the roof to watch them eat dinner.

No marching ducks for us.

We then grabbed a comfy seat in the hotel lobby and ordered some fancy grown-up hot chocolates to warm up.  The lobby was great people watching.  The place was packed with people in super-fancy clothes, drinking super fancy drinks.  It was decked out for Christmas and a woman on the piano was playing Christmas carols.  So much fun!

Grown-up hot chocolate.



We were slightly underdressed.

From there we headed to Beale Street in search of food.  Our first stop didn't have great food selection but it did have big beers and live music.

Beer, live music, and great company.

The night continued with lots of beers (another post-race tradition).  At one point we walked out onto the street and came face-to-face with a Christmas pub crawl.  Brittney is a self-confessed Christmas freak, so she was over the moon for these people.  They were decked out in Christmas gear and out to have a good time. 

Brittney and her people.

Joining in the Christmas spirit.

Out on Beale Street.

The night was long and at one point we ended up in the basement of a bar, being hit on by a man in a santa hat.  Now, I'm at the point in my life where getting hit on in a bar doesn't happen every day year, so maybe I should be flattered.  But this dude was drunk.  I then found it hilarious when he passed out in the booth behind us.

Santa had a few too many.

On Sunday we had one more tradition to complete before heading home; delicious breakfast.  We hit the jackpot when we stumbled into Brother Junipers.  Again, we headed to the bar for the quickest seats and best conversation.  I knew it was our kind of place when they served our coffee in mis-matched Christmas mugs. 

Yes please!

And we've arrived at the real reason we run all those dang miles... it's so we can refuel.

We love food!

I had an open-faced omelet, biscuit, and cheesy grits. This meal was recommended by Rachael Ray herself, so you know it was good.  Plus, cheesy grits?  I love you.

This is why I run.

The drive home was a long one.  But we kept ourselves entertained.

Uncle Rooster's Café.

Osceola Cheese.



Um' good!

 

 

This was another great race-trip to cap off a year of awesome trips with Brittney.  I'm so blessed to have such an amazing friend who will do silly things like pull over on the side of the road to take pictures with a giant rooster, and forgo the race hotel close to the start so that we can stay with Elvis instead.  She's pretty great! 

 

It's hard to believe that our next race-trip will be to Boston!!!