Crossing the Finish Line

Another big weekend in the books for 2011!

I spent the better part of Saturday morning on 1st street prepping for the 10k race and part of the Illinois Marathon race events. It was my 1st 10k and I have been training since February! I posted many months ago that I was going to challenge myself to get fit now that I'd had a successful surgery back on Dec. 30th. As I drove toward the race I caught the National Anthem on the radio which signaled the start to the festivities and the beginning of the wheelchair race.

The walk to the starting line from where I parked was pretty chilly. It was about an eight minute walk as it turned out. I didn't park where I had planned (at the iHotel) and pulled into the first parking lot I saw still had tons of spots. Turned out I didn't focus enough on where I parked because it took some time after the race to figure out exactly which brown brick building I had parked near of all the identical buildings in the Research Park area on 1st.

I jumped, stretched and pumped myself up for about 20 minutes while waiting for the GO! signal. I'd been cold at one of the last Shamrock Shuffle 8k's I ran and felt really tight as I ran that race. I was doing all I could to stay warm. The half marathoners were lined up behind us and the marathon runners behind them. It definitely felt weird being at the front of the line! I'm used to being near the back. The announcer told us to high-five our neighbors and with a final good luck to the guy in the orange shirt next to me and a high-five we then turned towards the starting banner and mentally began the countdown...

When the GO! signal was given, I headed out telling myself, "don't go out too fast! Pace yourself!" I say this every race and I have been fairly good the last 2 races I ran to heed this advice. I thought I was doing well at the start because everyone, and I do mean everyone, was passing me up! After noticing the large numbers of people whipping past me looking confident, I began to feel my body's motion. I felt my legs, the feel of the road and then checked the iphone I was running with to see what my pace was (10:13?!?!!!). Wait, was that correct? Yup, I was running WAAAAY to fast. Despite the runners blazing trails past me, I was still motoring. I hit the 1 mile mark just over 10 minutes into the race and a few feet later got a lovely cramp in my right side just below my ribs.

Darn it! I wanted to prove I could run the whole darn race. That was now out of the question since I knew I had to walk if I wanted get back on track in this race. With 5 miles to go, I gave myself a 3 minute walk, massaging my side to help it along (that probably did nothing but it mentally made me think I was doing something helpful since I couldn't be running).

I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason and I think that cramp was one of those things. As a result, I spotted some runners near me who were going about the same pace as I was. One was a gentleman in his 50's with a blue race shirt and a yellow headband. The other a girl in a pink shirt that had a cute running saying on it (which I never got around to reading!) And so it was, for the next 5 miles, I kept those two folks in my sight and ran.

For the most part, I ran all 5 miles. There were a few hills and I decided that I'd walk barely slower than I would running up the inclines so I walked up the hills. I was a bit embarrassed on the hill just after the turn from Armory (which had the biggest uphill climb of the race) and then south onto Prospect which had traffic stopped. Here I am walking, with about 1 mile to go, past cars of people who were probably watching us as we ran past. It was enough to get me to motor up the legs again and keep pushing.

We neared U of IL's Memorial Stadium and my thighs and calves were burning. I was ready to complete the race but just wasn't quite there yet. We turned in towards the Stadium and just before we hit the tunnel leading into it I decided to sprint. It was about .1 mile and I knew I could do it. I wanted to make an entrance. Who wouldn't? As a swimmer, I was always great at finding a few drops left in the tank to push myself as hard as possible and finish strong. I used that same method to complete this race.

I finished in 1 hour, 11 minutes and 57 seconds. The only other time I had gone the full 6.2 miles was the weekend before, on a glorious afternoon along Chicago's lakefront and on that occasion I had gone 1 hour, 20 minutes, barely able to run much of the last mile. I was so proud of this race. And it really, really was a big accomplishment.

It was also an accomplishment to come home, grab a 2 hour nap and then sit in a car for 2 hours as I drove up to Chicago! I had stretched dozens of times since running the race but getting out of that car was tough. As my Dad, who has run 5 marathons, said to me, it's got nothing to do with stretching - it's lactic acid. Yup, it sure was. Painful but such a great feeling. It is your body saying "thank you for pushing me." I actually wanted to run a long run again today. Yes!

My weekend ended with a lovely shower for my little sister. She will always be my little sister, although as adults I feel like we are equal in age. It is great to see her happy and to imagine how much her life is going to change with a baby girl in the house in just a matter of weeks. Baby Sip got so many great gifts and I think Momma was really touched. She's going to be a great mom!

By the way, sorry for being away from this place for so many days! Lots of fundraising and meetings with my Sophomores, a Banquet for my Coop students, another Banquet for Rotary which sponsors awards for some of our Business students and finally Prom this weekend which I work with my Sophomores. I'll be back soon with news on my new family addition, a puppy.

Enjoy May guys! It will be cold here tonight but warmth is on the weather forecast for the weekend. Bring on Summer. 28 Days away!

Kristen