First words out of my mouth as I stumbled out of bed were...I'm either crazy or stupid! I was tired...3 AM comes much too quickly on a Saturday morning. Got to the buses and met Luz, Josse, and Erika. Once on the bus ran into BSRools - the awesome duo, and had a short ride up. Fire-side chats and potty breaks filled up the hours till start time, then we were off. Those three ladies were too much for me to handle after about .5 miles and I let them go, I knew I wasn't holding an 8:20! Honestly, the first 3+ miles were sheer torture. More than once I considered just walking. My calves have been SO tight, the front of my shins were burning with pain. Add in the up hill and lack of company and I was spiraling in the wrong direction. I quickly made up my mind to simply hold out till the dam (this was about mile 1.5 and I thought it was at about 2) and then decide after I got some good downhill rolling. The dam wasn't until mile 4 or 5 and I had HORDES of people passing me (uh, huh..yeah, go ahead...pass the big, fat, slow, pregnant lady and feel good!) but I also had some GREAT conversations with a few different groups of people about my shirt and my 'situation' that kept my mind off the fact that I wasn't feeling in prime condition to continue! Once I hit the canyon and could hear the river, birds, soft footfalls and my eased breathing I knew it was all going to be okay. I just let it go from there and REALLY started feeling good. I started picking people off and passing them, a couple of good downhill stretches I even hit in the 6 and 7 mm range (mind you for only the stretch!). It was SO beautiful, it was nice to enjoy it this year and not be in unimaginable ITB pain like last year. I also got a WONDERFUL lift of spirits to see Allie with my big "RAD" sign! You always see all of the signs on the side of the road, and I've never had one *sniff* so Allie THANKS SO MUCH! It was such an amazing boost! I'm glad I didn't have to wait till mile 25!
Then we hit the winding trail. The crowds really helped keep my spirits up, although the miles seemed to drag a LOT more than in the canyon. I was still passing people and NOT getting passed - feeling much more confident than those first few miles! I took that energy and the last 1.5 miles weren't my favorite, but I let the energy carry me and push me through to the end. I felt good, and it was good to feel good being 34 weeks pregnant finishing a 1/2 marathon under 2 hours! AP: 8:55 splits: 8:58, 9:34, 9:44, 9:26, 8;51, 9:01, 9:04, 8:42, 8:36, 8:07, 8:32, 8:43, 8:42, 8:23 (last .25 recorded on my garmin...guess I wasn't too good about running tangents!). It was a wonderful race, I got to see and meet some GREAT bloggers that made the trip and effort worthwhile. Thanks Josse, Ericka and Luz for getting me off to a good strong start. If I would've run my 10mm I may have missed my 2 hrs! Brent and Sylvie - you two are amazing, I had a wonderful time chatting with you and seeing you on the trail. Strong runners with hearts of gold - more commando points than I'm allowed to dole out! Allie, thanks again girl! It made me feel like a rockstar to have YOU cheering little 'ol me on! I also had the most amazing surprise afterward - to run into Lowell and then get treated to lunch with the amazing crowd of Lowell, Smooth (and Pres) and Marci! AMAZING day!! stats: I was 86/342 women in 'my'/Kelly's division (35-39); 357/1546 women overall; 711/2273 men & women combined; That puts me in the top 25-30th percentile finishing - not feeling too shabby about that! :) Also, one interesting thing on the 'stats' was that I placed 12th in my AG for the final 5K time - I really was feeling good! Not too much to say about the first 5K time...
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