3M Nostalgia

Yesterday was the 3M Half Marathon here in Austin.  The 3M has a special place in my heart. In 2008, it was the first half marathon I had ever done and BFF ran it with me. I remember it like it was yesterday. The morning was very cold so I overdressed in layers. Then in true Texas fashion, the temperature rose and I got hot during the race and eventually I took off my fleece and shirt and tied them around my waist. I took off my gloves and hat (those ended up on the road somewhere).

Until this race, my longest run had been 9 miles with some killer hills (I later found out that people training for the Boston Marathon often used the Rain Creek Parkway/Floral Park Drive route I did weekly to prepare for that race. I was in good company). And call me masochistic, but I loved hills. BFF dreaded the training runs when she saw me turning onto one of these streets.  She would grumble and grunt as we ran the hills but she stuck with me like a trooper. I felt like we were well prepared for the race. The only thing we weren't prepared for was the weather. Until that weekend, our training had been done in cool weather. BFF and I took full advantage of water stops along the way and paced ourselves well.

The final three miles were the most challenging. BFF's bad knee was screaming violently at her so we slowed our pace to accommodate it. She wanted me to go ahead but I didn't. We made the commitment to do the race together and I was gonna stick to it. I started cracking jokes, singing "Eye of the Tiger" and quoting cheesy lines from movies to get her mind off of the pain. One of our favorites was from the movie "The Replacements":

Shane Falco: I wish I could say something classy and inspirational, but that just wouldn't be our style.

[pause while everybody is in the huddle]

Shane Falco: Pain heals. Chicks (we said GUYS) dig scars. Glory... lasts forever.

We laughed our way through the last miles of the race. Two hours, ten minutes and twenty-four seconds after we started the race, we crossed the finish line together. BFF apologized for our finish time (we trained to finish in 1:45) but I poo-pooed that. We got through it and it was even better because we did it together. I could have gone ahead of her and finished in under two hours as planned but it wouldn't have meant as much.  

The lesson I learned was that no matter how prepared we think we are for the big race, anything can happen along the route. But the best way to get through it is with laughter, fun and being surrounded by the people that matter most to us.  Those things make any victory that much sweeter.

Happy Trails!

Valeka

T-Shirts

"My lunch hours aren't for eating, my Saturday mornings aren't for sleeping and my holidays aren't for taking it easy.  I am a runner." - wisdom from a runner's t-shirt

"In a world of give and take, give what it takes" - more wisdom from a runner's t-shirt 

This weekend while going through my drawers, I noticed that my race t-shirt collection needs some updating.  For every race I have done, I have received a t-shirt.  The good thing is that they have kept me from buying pj's for several years (hee-hee) but it did make me realize that the last year printed on the most recent race shirt is November 2009 (Thundercould Subs Turkey Trot).  Boy, do I have a LOT of catching up to do!

Looking through my old shirt collection was like a trip down memory lane.  It kinda reminded me of looking through a box of old school pictures or through old grade school report cards.  I could see how much I had progressed in my training over the years.  The oldest shirts were for 5k's (TONS of Race for the Cure shirts and the Austin Runner's Club Daisy 5k) and then the Turkey Trots (those are 5 miles).  The next shirts were 10k's like the Austin American Statesman 10,000, IBM Uptown Classic and the worldwide Nike Human Race 10k (this race will forever be my nemesis.  Not my best race and it was made worse by my bad decision to drink a Monster energy drink during the race.  Never again).  Races eventually became more challenging and longer such as the Run for the Water 10 miler, the Decker Challenge Half Marathon, the 3M Half Marathon and the last race shirt in the stack was the race I trained for but didn't get to do - the San Antonio Rock n Roll Marathon.  There have been more 5k's and such since then but nothing quite as significant as those last few races.  

I miss it all.  I miss putting in the hours of training and the ache in my legs when I have pushed myself past my comfort zone.  I miss packet pickup at the local running store and going to pre-race expos that are full of energy and excited runners.  I miss getting my clothes ready for a race the night before and making sure I had enough safety pins to pin my number to my shirt and I miss tying my timing chip to my running shoes.  I miss getting up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning to head to the race site to warm up and line up with the rest of the participants.  I miss the feeling of accomplishment after doing well in a race (and "well" for ME is completing the route and not being the last person in).  My first race back will be in 5 months.  The excitement is back and I am embracing the challenge.  And soon, I will have another t-shirt for my collection.  

Happy Trails!

Valeka