On Race Day

And so my race has come and gone.

I was so much more relaxed this time. I got all my stuff ready the night before. Having trained for a marathon last year and doing the 12, 14, 16, 18 mile distances on a weekly basis, 13.1 isn’t anything that gave me anxiety this time around.

The freeway exit was a huge mess, as always. It’s only one right turn lane into two lanes heading west. As I passed the first turn (Ashton Blvd), a white minivan skipped that light and went straight through it even though he was in a left turn lane. Seeing this after my last near accident, I laid on my horn and swerved to the right because I anticipated he’d try to get into my lane (since he was going the wrong direction). As I spun my wheel, I spilled my pre-workout collagen mixture all over myself. It got all over my driver’s seat and made it look like I wet my pants. So that super upset me before my race. Definitely wasn’t how I wanted things to get started. I got over it, figuring the other runners wouldn’t care. I’m sure they didn’t.

I went ahead and used my app’s measurement of distance and time because, well, I like the results better. But really, it was calling out every half mile, and the mile markers on the race always came about a third of a mile after my app had called it out.

So I hit 13.1 a few minutes before the actual finish line.

My app clock had me finished at 2:00:32.

The race clock had me finished at 2:03:15.

I was 26 in my age/gender division out of 103.

I was 154 out of all females, 660 total.

I was 391 out of 1156.

My bib # was 218 if you want to look me up here: http://www.theracetime.com/thankful-13/

Ashleigh and Danny were at the finish cheering for me. When I registered for the race, I didn’t even know Ashleigh would be living with me. And I didn’t even know Danny existed. I think it’s awesome that my cheering squad consisted of the people I would least expect when I signed up.

We wandered around for a minute, so I could see what they had. Rolls with butter, Costco pumpkin pie, hot chocolate, and mini churros from San Diablo. I didn’t want any of those. I just wanted a donut, which I should’ve gotten the night before. Alas, I wasn’t smart and didn’t plan ahead.

We took pictures in front of the big sign, both professional and our own on my cell phone.

The race had more hills than anticipated, particularly in the last mile or two. They were killer, but I trained on hills, so it was doable.

It was also a little bit windy, but seriously, I cannot complain about the weather. It was so nice. It was above 40 degrees and overcast most of the race. There was no rain. It was so much better than what I trained in, and I was grateful.

My feet started hurting at about mile 3, but nothing excruciating like I had dealt with during training. The days after haven’t been too bad either. I’ve just been trying to rub them.

As I cooled down after my race, covered in sweat in cold weather, I started to get freezing cold. I even was violently shivering at home for some time.

The medal is super freaking cool, by the way.

I stopped in Draper to see if by some miracle my favorite donut place was open. They weren’t.

I stretched at home and talked with Ashleigh, did some dishes, took a bath, and basically took it easy for a few hours. I even got a little power nap in. My toes hurt and my quads hurt the day after, since I went to Orange Theory on Friday.

Overall though, I haven’t really had to do any major recovery. I’m glad I did the race and that I improved my time from last year’s self-directed half. I didn't run on Saturday because of snow. I ran four miles on Monday, and four this morning. After Saturday's run I am going to switch to Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday runs, reducing 1-2 miles per week until I get my eyebrows microbladed in a few weeks. Woohoo!