Colorado (Half) Marathon 2012

Sunset in Fort Collins

I signed up for the Colorado Marathon back in September, little did I know what all was going to take place between then and race day.  I have been going in and out of mini lupus flare ups which has not made training easy by any stretch of the imagination!  It started looking like I was not going to be able to run it at all and then things started to improve, finally! Wednesday, 2 May 12, my sister finally gave her approval for me to run the HALF marathon.   I know it sounds nuts that I had to get my sister’s approval, but trust me it is for my own good.  I will keep pushing myself until I am in a complete an absolute flare up!

We left for Fort Collins Saturday morning it was nice clear sailing all the way up.  We were introduced to McAlister’s over the summer and fell in love with their iced tea, now  sadly there is no McAlister’s here in Colorado Springs, very sad if you ask me; Fort Collins has two!!!!! We got into town around lunch time so there was no question where we were going to stop for lunch.  After lunch we got to the hotel, got checked in and headed to the expo.  Staying at the host hotel has it’s advantages one of which is you don’t have to travel anywhere to get to the expo!!!!! I went and picked up my marathon bib and then traded it in for a half marathon bib (I was a little sad that I had to do that), then I went and checked out rest of the expo.  Over the past few years the expo has grown vastly, the first time I ran it the expo was in this little room and wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of stuff.  We played on some of the equipment and checked out some of the vendors and headed out.  We grabbed our bags and went up to the room.  It was a lot smaller than what we usually got, but such is life.  We figured we would relax for a bit before heading out to dinner (I like to eat pre-race dinner around 4:30 – 5:00 pm).  On the way out we stopped by the Brooks bus and I won a free pair of running shoes!!!! YAY!!!! We decided we would go somewhere different this time for dinner (we always go to Olive Garden).  We ended up at Bisetti's Ristorante, the food was ok, not really what I wanted, but whatever.  We made a quick stop by Sports Authority (I always forget something!!!!!) then back to the hotel.  I was in bed by 8:00, asleep by 10:00 (at the latest).  For the first time that I can remember I had a dream that I woke up late and I ran to the bus in my jammies with my running stuff in hand.  Needless to say I kept waking up and checking the clock to make sure I didn’t oversleep (I had the alarm clock set, my phone set, a wake-up call placed… did I really think I would over sleep? I guess so!).

I was up at 4:00 am, I got dressed (Moving Comfort Jubralee bra, Under Armor bra [huge mistake], Nike t-shirt, Moeben running sleeves, Feetures running socks, Skirts Sports Tough Girl Skirt  )and headed downstairs.  Did I mention not only did the host hotel have a bus pick up for the race start they also had Starbucks in the lobby?!!!! I was down stairs somewhere around about 4:30. I got my half caff coffee, a banana nut muffin and a banana (notice anything missing?  I don’t like protein?) I sat down on the couch and enjoyed my coffee and my muffin.  The bus came and we loaded up.  Since we weren’t full we made a stop at the transportation area and picked up some more runners and up the mountain we went!  I looked at the weather so I knew it would be chilly up there so I had a Skirt Sports Tough Girl Top and a sweatshirt with me! I refused to get cold! As soon as I got off the bus I was pulling layers on.  Before the race started The sweatshirt went into to my bag which went on the truck to meet me at the finish line.  I tied the Tough Girl Top around my waist, just in case I got cold.  We got to the finish line and all of a sudden people started running… no National Anthem, no gun, no nothing. 

I had planned to do a nice comfortable 15:00 minute mile pace, I was taking it nice and slow (I didn’t have my inhaler, oops)!  I was chugging along, Mile 1 - just under pace, Mile 2 – feeling good, Mile 3 – still under pace, passed by the first marathoner!!!!!!! Mile 4 – still going strong, Mile 5 – no issues, Mile 6 – about a minute under, Mile 7 (with that stupid hill) – I was right on pace.  Then something happened.  My feet started hurting???? (my shoes are not brand new, I am used to those socks, and I have gotten long runs up to 10 miles in, this should not be happening!!!!!)  Mile 8 – still chugging along (over pace), Mile 9 – eh, Mile 10 – vertigo starts (excuse me?????  That is new!), Mile 11 – I am going to finish this and that is final, oh! And I will not end up in a flare up!) Mile 12 – I send my sister a text to send Cuervo up the trail to meet me (vertigo was really kicking my butt).  Mile 13 – I have my little buddy with me (I am having to hold on to him to make sure I don’t fall over).  Little man and I cross the finish line we both get a bottle of water and I get my hardware.  We leave the finish area and go sit down to wait for everyone else.  I get my shoes off, and I have blisters all over the bottom of my feet????  Then I go to take a step and OH $#!|!!!!! I figure it is a Charlie Horse in my foot.  I can’t walk on it! Luckily Jose and Curevo are getting taller and I get one on each side and we make it look like we are just walking around. 

Latest bling!

We get back to the hotel, and Cuervo like a wonderful child starts getting ice.  I take an ice bath for a while and then take a nice warm bath.  Afterwards I prop my foot up (I realized it was not a Charlie Horse in my foot) and ice it for a while.  It is still unhappy right now, but at least I can walk on it without to many issues.

My plan for this week training wise is a lot of pool time! I am not even going to spin class this week. I am thinking about some weight training but this is my pull back week and I have no intention of strapping on my running shoes until the end of the week at the earliest. 

It was a good run, there were some weird things going on, but that is ok. 

~If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned"~