1/2 Marathon Weekend

Big Day...  At 6am before the race

WOW!!!! That is how I feel right now. This run was one of the most memerable moments of my life. My plan was to run the full marathon with Zach, but I did only ran the 1/2. My knees and back were causing me lots of problems, so I had to let up on my running, and that led me to do the half. My brother continued to run the full after not training totally right. Kara and I am ran the 1/2 and had the time of our lives.

The race was Sunday morning at 7:30 in San Antonio. Friday night we stayed in Austin at my other brother's house. May parents were also in for the weekend, so we got to see them. We went to bed late b/c we were excited and Zach wanted to keep talking to Dan and I. So I stayed up like 3 hours past my normal bed time for some brother-sister bonding. We woke up Saturday and got ready and went to lunch with everyone before heading to the San Antonio EXPO center to pick up our packets. After lunch we were off to start our running experience. We got to the Expo center after waiting in traffic and searching longer than we wanted to for a parking spot, but ended up with a great one. Inside we got our numbers (mine was 18143, and Zach's was 18142). Weird thing about that is we did not sign up together. I signed up weeks after him and we don't even have the same last name anymore... but we ended up having numbers right by each other???? How Cool!!! Kara met us at the Expo center and we went a changed her corral numbner so she would start with Zach and I. Your corral number is based on your predicted time. We were in corral # 18. This was because when we signed up we put we would finish the race in 4:45. So this was where we would begin. They started each corral 1 minute and 30 seconds after the one before. So we really did not start the race till about 8:00am on Sunday morning. So after we got all our stuff we headed to Walmart to get Zach and Kara some warm, cheep clothes that they could just throw off. Something neat they do is... during the race when you get hot they say just throw your clothes off and after the race they come by and get all the clothes and take them to the poor people. I thought that was so cool. Saturday night we were staying with my aunt and uncle in SA. So we met then at Zio's for a nice pasta dinner before our race... WELL that was everyone else's plan too. We showed up at 5:45 and still waited over an hour for our table. We had a great dinner and were full of carbs. We headed back to their house and started to get all our stuff ready for the morning. We were so excited!!!! Trying to figuare out sleeping arangments my little brother told me "I will sleep better if I know I am sleeping with you..." (He did not have a great night of sleep the night before so he did not want to sleep on another pull out bed, and felt better about sleeping with me.) Oh my gosh... so what did I do??? Kicked my husband out of the bed !!! I just love Zach to death and it meant so much to me he said that... I could have cried right then. (Zach said a few things this weekend that made me fight the tears... I will tell you others later in the story.) So we showered and got to bed around 9:30. Zach tossed and turned, but was ready to go when he woke up.

We woke about 4:30 and left the house about 5:00AM .  So early, but we hardly knew it b/c we were so excited!!! We headed to park and found the best parking spot EVER. We parked in a parking grage right on mile 8.  We were the first runners in the grage and ht that was kinda weird.  It was so cold and Kara and I did not want to get out of the car, but Zach was more then ready. He made us get out at 6am.  Dan walked us to our pick up point and said he would try to find us around mile 8. He was smart and wore a bright orange hat... So we hopped on the bus and headed to the starting line. We passed the highway on our way and saw hundreds and hundreds of cars lined up... we were so glad we were early.  When we got dropped off we walked a few blocks to the start. We had to  put our stuff on the UPS trucks ( this is how they keep out clothes and things and we picked up at the end of the race), go to the restroom, and warm up. So around 7:25 we started to jog and stretch and head toward our corral. Oh man we were so cold at this point, but so excited/nervous/can't believe we are really here/lots of other things.... WOW the moment we have been training for for almost 6 months had finally arrived... AHHHH.  So we walked up to our corral and the lady handed us a little packet of salt and said this is to help keep you hydrated... we had heard that before, but never actually ate salt for that purpose.  So what did we do??? Well Kara and I actually silly and ate a much as we could before being grassed out.  We did the wave a few times and then the first corral is off...  AHHH so pumped now. 

OUR TURN YEAH!!!!!  We are off... Kara and I had decided that were going to run 9 minutes and then walk 1... this is what someone had told her was the best way to run that kind of distance and is so much better on your body. So with the way my body had been feeling I was game for this. So after the first 9 minutes we walked and Zach keep going and that was the last time we saw him for about 5 and half hours...  This method was awesome for Kara and I. We were still feeling great at mile 6 and ready to keep going. 

About mile 8 we see Dan for the first time and boy we were pumped. He was standing on a corner so it was fast, I was just glad we saw him. 

 Zach passed first about 10 minutes before Kara and I. 

Thousands and thousands of people cheering and encouraging us on the whole way. It was incredible.  About mile 9 and 10 Kara and I's bodies were talking to us.  Her knees were hurting and my back.  So we told ourselves this is the hard part and just get through it b/c we knew once we hit 11 and 12 we would be pumped b/c we were so close to the finish line.   Around mile 10 I told Kara I think I could just start crying right now, and she said me too.  Afterwards we talked about why we thought that was... Of corse we had all kids of emotions going  on, but the main thing was that these people were cheering us on and they did not have the slightest clue who we were.  They did not care what color our skin was, nor did they know anything about our past... they were there just cheering on every single person to the finish.  There was only one team and everything was positive out of their mouths. It was incredible.  

At one point I looked over to the cheering thousands and saw this old man (that might have been homeless) in a wheel chair and made eye contact with him.  He said "You go girl's" directly to Kara and I. WOW... I said Kara he was speaking directly to us... that motivated us and again I was almost in tears. 

Ok almost done I promise!!!!

So Kara and I are almost done we hit mile 12 and we are headed straight to the Alamo Dome... Then at mile 12. about 7 we see Dan again.... ahhh ho happy we are jumping up and down (with what energy... I don't know) we were so happy b/c we did not plan on seeing him again on the run.

So we are turning our last corner and hit mile 12.9ish and there is this HUGE hill.  Now what in the world were they thinking when they planned the corse out and put pretty much the only hill the last .3 miles????? WHAT???   Well Kara and I ran up it pretty fast b/c we know we had to get to the top and we would be so almost done.  With legs burning we hit the top and turned right and took off sprinting. We had about 50 yards to go and we were passing  everyone... I know people were looking at us wondering what the junk????  

2 hours and 23 minutes... we finished!!!  We were pumped to see we finished in less then 2 and a half hours.  They handed us metals right then and we headed to the finisher area and got water and tons of food.  We grabbed our stuff from the UPS truck and went to find Dan.  

I had told Zach I would meet up with him to finish his race with him. We found Dan and  walked to about mile 25 1/2  and waited for a Zach.  He was later then HE thought he would be, but we all knew he would be after the time he thought... so after waiting for him a bit I thought I needed to go further down so I could meet him earlier.  I walked to about 24 1/2 and waited their for him.  I started to get nervous when I did not see him for a while, but I knew he was not a quitter. I saw some come by me that could hardly walk and others who were walking with their upper body tilted to one side, they could no longer hold it up right. Dan and Kara waited back at our original spot so they could take pictures of us when we passed.  

Finally I see Zach....  I was jumping up and down and screaming for him... I see he is not doing well, but he cracked a huge smile when he saw me. He was dragging his left leg. I got up to him and he was walking so I continued to walk with him.  Second time I had to fight the tears because of Zach... he told me "I wanted to cry when I saw you..." Man I fought hard.  Then I thought why did I not go further to meet him. I could have walked to whole time  and met him at like mile 22 instead.  But o-well I was glad to see him and see him alive. We walked a little and I warned him and others around about the huge hill at the end.  People were not happy about that, but glad to know ahead of time.  He wanted to run and I told him to save it. 

 would jog for a second and then walk and then we hit the hill and he jogged up the hill and to the finish line... We crossed together and it was so fun. I was so proud of him for finishing. He was hurting so bad, and he pushed through and finished it.  Zach's knee was hurting him so bad that he could not walk far, so Dan and Kara went to get the car and we meet up and were on the road. 

We all had the time of our lives, and after about 3 days our legs were totally done being sore.  I was really kinda surprised how not sore I was.  I guess I trained better then I thought. 

Zach and I are already planning to run a 1/2 in Feb. and I know we will continue to run 1/2's as long as we are healthy.  If you have never done one I strongly subject doing it.  Even just walk it. They are a blast to be apart of.  

I know this is way too long and had lots of details you do not care about, but I kinda wanted to have this for myself so thats why I wrote down everything... also I know there are so many grammatical errors, and I don't care I just wanted to get this all down and I am tired of writing so ... deal with it!!!   

Thanks for reading and  Peace out!!!