Surf City Recap (This is a Long One Folks)

I Did It!!!  And I didn't die....not even close...

 

 

All I can say is WOW! forgive me I'm sure I will totally over use the exclamation marks and the word awesome. But this was the coolest thing I thing I have ever done (besides give birth and get married of course well sort of ).

 

Anyway I spent most of Saturday relaxing and doing laundry oh joy  and trying not to syke myself out about the race the next day.  I actually slept really well, the hubs is still sick but told me to take the bed because I have worked really hard and needed to get my rest for the race, aww so sweet. And a Great BIG Thank You to Grammie C and Bob for keeping the Drama Queen for the weekend it was one less thing I had to figure out.  They are the best and I love them sooo much!

 

 I woke up early on Sunday to give myself enough time to eat (my usual an English muffin with PB and a banana) and let nature happen no runner trots for this girl. This was the outfit I had laid out isn't the shirt such a pretty color.

 

 My Mom picked me up at about 5:45am the race was in Huntington Beach about 45mins from me and we wanted to have enough time with traffic down there, which was crazy! It was pretty bad so mom had to drop me off then go find parking on her own, which was good and gave me time to hit up the port-o-johns.  Damn those lines were looong, but at least they moved fast.  I was also able to meet up with my friend Heather we have been texting and pumping each other up for the race and weren't sure if we were going to be able to find each other.  It was great we waited together for the start.  They let you go in waves so it didn't get congested.  Heather is much faster than me but we decided to stay together until the start then split and it worked great I wasn't as nervous having a friend there to chat with.

Heather and I waiting to start.

I started strong and just kept moving one foot in front of the other. I did stop once at mile 3 to pee I probably could have kept going but I didn't want to get near the end and be totally uncomfortable or pee my pants.  I also had to stop for a few seconds at mile 10 to stretch out my left calf.  I could feel it tighten up a lot and didn't want to get a full blown cramp, and that helped.  It was a great race they have "beach" style bands playing all along the course  and tons of spectators some even passing out M&M's and Fig Newtons for a sugar boost and some really cute signs. The weather was beautiful (actually it was beatiful if I was watching the race lol I prefer it colder and overcast) the sun was out the waves were pounding the beach.  It truly was a classic California day. There were all sorts of people big, small, fit, fluffy, young and old it was such an inspiration, some walked, some ran, some even rolled (the wheelchair racers).

This was about mile 6, look at all those people.

I snapped this mid run at mile 10 while I put on some Power music
to get me through the last 3 miles.

Those last 3 miles were tough I could feel my energy going and had to slow down and walk a bit more than I wanted but I told myself slow and steady I will get there, and that the last mile I would run all of it. And I did It was a slow run but I did that whole last one and when I saw the finish line I just sprinted that last .10 it took everything I had left.  As soon as I crossed that finish line the tears just came.  I could not believed I had actually done it!!  A few feet in front (behind the gate)  was my mom and my two friends CareBear and Nell they were cheering like crazy and the tears came again it was just so emotional I can;t even find the words for it. But is was the best feeling I have ever had.

After grabbing some water and a banana I asked if they had seen Erin come through yet and they hadn't.  We had figured since she was doing the full and started almost 2 hrs. before me we would finish close to the same time.  So I stayed in the chutes near the medals and about 15 minutes later Erin comes flying in YAY!!! We did it!  We gave each other the biggest hugs and both cried (I was such a baby) it was AWESOME!!!

I LOVE this picture we are so happy and still standing.
Notice I'm wearing my "magic" shoes, I'll tell you about it soon.

Then we headed out to meet up with our cheering section which also included Erin's husband and parents.  We were planning on hitting up the beer garden but it was packed and I was starving so we ended up going to one of my favorite Mexican restaurants and this was lunch.  A tostada salad and a Corona yumm I only ate about half of my lunch but drank down that beer.  I am so not a beer person I prefer wine and/or fruity girl drinks but that beer tasted so damn good.

 

 



A pic of me and my awesome cheering squad.

So my official time was 2:52:28 YAY I was under my 3hour goal and don't forget that included one potty stop and a stretch stop.  My Garmin said 2:48:24 because it pauses when I stop, so my actual moving time was really great and I averaged a 12:50 mile. Can I get a WOOT WooT!!

 

As I sit here and type this (on and off all day) Erin and I have been texting each other, we weren't sure how we would feel today so we both took the day off but we both feel great. I have a little soreness in my knees but that's nothing new.  I actually felt so good that I cleaned my poor neglected house and even went to the gym with TaTa for Aqua Aerobics.  In our texts we were both very happy that it was over but also quite sad,   then Erin asked me the question....Will you do another???

 

Know what I said...

 

 

HELL YA!!