Most people first complete a half marathon and then a
marathon, but not me! This last Sunday,
June 3rd, four friends and I completed the 21k Coahuila half
marathon! We left Torreon Saturday
morning via rental car and drove the three hours to Saltillo. We checked into our hotel, picked up our race
gear, and then relaxed for the remainder of the day.
The next morning I had my alarm set for 5:15am. I got up, took a shower (I had to take a
shower BEFORE the race in order to do my Spice Girl’s do), and then got all of
my race gear on. We started walking to
the starting line at about 6:15am. After walking the approximately 12 blocks to
the starting line, we were greeted by a sea of bright orange and green
shirts. It’s a good thing we decided to
be original and dress up like the Spice Girls.
Marissa was Baby Spice, I was Scary Spice, Carissa was Posh Spice, Kat was
Sporty Spice, and Taryn was Ginger Spice.
After a bathroom stop, it was soon time to head to the
starting line. I usually remain calm all the way up until it
comes time to get in the line-up. It is
at this point that my heart begins to race and I get that nervous feeling down
deep in the pit of my stomach. Although
I normally only stand in line for about 10 minutes (or less), it always feels
like so much more!
Bang! The gun is shot
and we’re off. Well, we’re not off. Only the people in the front can start when
the gun goes off. The rest of us are
left to be herded like a bunch of cattle across the starting line. It’s a good thing we wear chips, because if
we didn’t our time would have been two minutes slower. Two minutes was how long it took for our feet
to cross the starting line.
It didn’t take long for us to basically get a slap across
the face in the form of a monstrous hill that lasted nearly the whole first
three miles of the race course. It was
then that I knew I was in for a real treat.
I took advantage of the downhill, leaned back, and allowed
gravity to do its job. Sadly, once again
the course flattened and all of the sudden my legs felt like two huge stumps of
lead. It was then that we were cutting
through small, narrow, downtown streets lined with supporters hollering,
clapping, and shouting, “Vamos Scary Spice.”
I felt a little surge to go faster.
Shortly after the half-way point two women passed me and
asked who Scary Spice was. I answered
and heard a laugh behind me. Much to my surprise
I turned around and saw Marissa. Shocked
I asked, “What are you doing here? I
thought I lost you a long time ago.”
Marissa responded that she had been behind me the whole time, lost me
for a bit on the downhill, but then caught back up to me. Her words were something to the effect of, “The
course started downhill and all of the sudden you took off!”
Marissa and I continued on together for only a little bit
until the urge to go to the bathroom became too much for me to bear. (Soon after the gun went off I felt the need
to go to the bathroom, but I had been hoping that I could make it to the finish
line without needing to stop.) Marissa
commented, “Why don’t you just go behind that wall?” as she pointed to the wall
along the street. I notified her that I
would have, had this urge to use the bathroom did not require the use of toilet
paper. I spotted a 7-eleven outdoor
bathroom and off I went.
Before I knew it I was headed back onto the race
course. (A small part of me hoped that
other runners did not look at me and think, “She cheated.” I hoped that they would just assume that I
went off to use the toilet.) I was
hoping to maybe catch back up to Marissa, but sadly this never happened.
With about 3km to go until the finish line, I assumed we were
done with hills. I reasoned, “Surely the
race committee would not design the course to include a hill at the end. Sadly, I was wrong. Although the last hill was nowhere near as brutal
as the first, it was still brutal enough to make me think, “I’m dying!”
I had told myself that I was going to continue jogging no
matter what. There was a point, however,
that I wondered which would have been faster; my snail-like jog or a brisk
walk. Alas, I chose the snail-like
jog. Normally I try to sprint it to the
end. Although I picked up my pace a
little, it was nowhere near my usual sprint.
I had nothing more in me. I had
left it all out on the road.
Going into the race I was hoping for a sub 2 hour time. After seeing the last hill I knew that it was
going to be just out of my reach. I
finished with an official chip time of 2:06:27, but since I stopped my Garmin
when I went to the bathroom I choose to think of my official time as 2:04:23. With the higher elevation and the hills to
take into consideration, I am satisfied with my time. Here are everyone’s results:
#2636 Marissa
18-34
1307 / 3036
165 / 739
76 / 346
40:43
02:03:43
#2629
Stephanie
18-34
1405 / 3036
179 / 739
82 / 346
40:33
|
02:06:27
#2728
Carissa
18-34
1967 / 3036
338 / 739
156 / 346
45:47
02:19:44
#2666
Kat
18-34
2246 / 3036
434 / 739
205 / 346
51:59
02:28:45
#2690
Taryn
18-34
2334 / 3036
470 / 739
222 / 346
50:00
02:32:11
(bib #, name, age
category, rank among everyone, rank among women, rank among age category, time
at 10.5k, and official chip finishing time)
I’m training to run a marathon for the Leukemia
& Lymphoma Society to raise life-saving funds to help those fighting blood
cancers. Please help! You can donate to my event at:
Don't forget that you may also check out my journey from obese couch potato
to marathoner by clicking HERE.
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