 posted Apr-30-2007 04:51 PM
   
Subtitled: A Family Affair.Short version:
2:35:41
12327 / 19416 overall
6653 / 12222 woman
198 / 741 women age 50-54 age grade: 49.09 (I'm 51) Goals:
1. To get DD#1 over the finish line.
2. Accomplish goal #1 in 3 hours
3. Anything under 2:45 for her would be fantastic. A little background history: Five members of my family originally signed up for this race in December. Of the five: DH withdrew with Achilles tendonosis ongoing since Christmas. DD#1- age 28- signed up for the HM. She is a virgin racer. Heck, she is a virgin runner as she just finished the C25K on New Year's Day. We will call her the VIRGIN. DD#2 - age 25- was a high school runner. She has run in two full marathons and 1 HM before this. She has some issues with gu's and what have you on the race course. We will call her STUBBORN. DS#2 - age 19 - was also a high school runner. He is currently a college kid and training was not there so he had decided to drop down to the HM. We will call him the WISE ONE. And then me, HM #4. PR: 2:18. The saga: (sorry it is long....) We drove on Thursday night from Omaha to Kansas City where we met up with the Wise One and then flew on to Nashville. Our flight which was to depart at 9:30 pm was 90 minutes late. Checked into our hotel at 2 am. Not a good start to the weekend. We met Stubborn in Nashville as she lives in Virginia. Friday was uneventful. Went to the expo, bought too much stuff but I was happy to have finally found the smaller sticks of body glide that fit in your pocket better. The hotel recommended a nice restaurant nearby that had good pasta. Unfortunately, it was prom night in Nashville and they were booked. We moved on and ate at a second choice where the food was just ok. Since we had a rental car and DH was not running, he planned to drop us off at the start line before the race on Saturday morning. Always afraid that we will get caught in race day traffic, we kept moving the departure time up. We finally settled on leaving the hotel at 5 am. We could have left at 6 am and had plenty of time as it worked out. As we were gathering gear bags and exiting the car, Wise One said he was not running with us. He knew that Stubborn has had a hard time finishing her races as she hits the wall hard and will not listen to sage advice about taking gu, drinking Gatorade or whatever on the course. Nor will she wear a fuel belt. Some day she will learn. Marathon #1 she cramped in her calves severely but did finish the race. Marathon #2, she threw up on the course at mile 13 and managed to hobble on to finish. I would have quit both times so she is stronger than I . Back to Wise One's decision. He had a full marathon bib number so he opted to join Stubborn on the course at mile 19 and run her to the finish. He said he had nothing to prove, he knew he could run a HM and he would rather help his sister. I know these are my own kids but I just love that. So our group of 5 has dwindled to 3. Fashion report: 52 degrees at start but overcast with an occasional rain drop.
Virgin opts for Body armor black shorts and body armor royal blue dry fit shirt. sunglasses, head band, underarmor sox and ? Asics shoes, double FUG - she is well endowed.. I wear black race ready shorts, light blue/turquiosish dry fit Nike shirt, FUG, Brooks addiction shoes, sox. Stubborn wears purple shorts, purple FUG and white wife beater. ( that is not too PC but that is what the kids call them), Nike shocks We make plenty of jokes about the women always having to do the hard work and go off to gear bag check etc. Drop off Stubborn in corral #8 as her projected finish time is 4:00:00. Virgin and I walk another 5 miles back to corral #22 where the slow people are. There were 32 corrals in total. Fast forward 45 minutes roughly and we are across the start line. Mile one is quick for us, just getting our legs and figuring out pace for Virgin. We pass mile marker one in 11:05. I am concerned that it is too fast for Virgin but she seems OK. Same for the next two markers. Cross 5K at 34:58. Continue on and 10 K time is 1:07:12. I am still concerned we are too fast as Virgin did most of her training on the treadmill (flat) and our long runs outdoors have been on fairly flat courses. The three 5 milers we did together on hills in the neighborhood resulted in Virgin developing shin splints 4 weeks pre-race and then severe booty lock issues when going down hill. So uphill was shin s and downhill was butt. If you have run Nashville, they are not lying when they say it is rolling hills. I don't think there was more than 2 city blocks that were on level ground. We go down a huge long hill - not steep but a long grind - fun on the way down but this part of the course is out and back so I know we will have to run up it. This is some where around mile 7 on the return trip. Virgin decides she needs to walk it. I am OK with that. Whatever it takes to get her through it. 10 mile mark we are still doing ok...1:55:50. Then she starts slowing down. I remember thinking I could probably walk faster but do not want to walk as she is still trying to run, although slowly. We have now slowed to roughly 13 minute miles for the last three miles. But she finishes at a run and all is well for her. Now back to the Stubborn one. She is not aware of this but my DH has made an airport run and picked up her boyfriend. He has never watched her run. It is a surprise for her that he has come...bearing gifts.  Wise One text messages us that Stubborn is now at 25 miles and loopy. As I said, he is the wise one as she never would have finished without his support. At the last on course band, Wise one text messages that she does not realize what mile marker she is at. DH picks them up before mile 26 and runs with them a short distance. Wise one continues on with Stubborn. The boyfriend jumps on course at 26.1. Stubborn looks at him and says..."You are not my Dad." Still can't quite figure out why he is there. She is in a fog. Boyfriend makes sure she is across the finish line, drops to one knee and hands her a ring box. The crowd around her cheers. All she can say is, "It's from Borshiem's( a wonderful jewelry store in Omaha). What???" Then he puts the ring on her finger . The crowd is silent as she has not said yes. Finally she smiles and attempts to hit his arm but misses and bursts out crying. The crowd claps and our family racing event is over. She will never get a better finish line prize. Thank God she didn't end up in the medical tent. PS....Wise One is telling anyone who asks him how his marathon went that he got a marathon medal. He is just omitting the part about only running 7 miles, not 26.2. If you have read this far, you are either a saint or very bored.
editted to add the hardware photo.
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Patty [This message has been edited by pmcneb (edited Apr-30-2007).] [This message has been edited by pmcneb (edited Apr-30-2007).]
IP: Logged |
Tragedy, Comedy, Suspense and Romance!! The whole family involved too. Great racing pmcneb! And the best report ever. 
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