The Ice Out of Her Bra

Shanda & me before

Charisma, Victoria, me, Shanda

This morning I finished the Hottest Half half marathon at White Rock Lake. That's your foreshadowing. I used the word "finished" instead of "raced" or even "ran."  Hottest Half or Hardest Half?

I'm so glad that I went into this (my second) half marathon with little to no expectations for myself. Finish, basically. Finish feeling good would have been icing on the cake. It turns out that I didn't get to have my cake and eat it, too. I'm blogging with ice on my foot. No worries, I'm not injured, it's the good-sized blister on the side of my foot and the blood blister on the tip of a toe that also looks like an animal mauled it. I'm a real runner, no doubt about it. My <horrible> time for today's half doesn't even make me think less of my runner status. 

I decided ahead of time to run with my friends Victoria and Charisma, who are training for their first full marathon. The plan was to use a 4:1 run/walk ration. It felt good for the first half. We even skipped a couple walk breaks because the crowd at the beginning was just too thick to selfishly slow to a walk. At the turn around I wasn't feeling great and I could tell the heat was starting to get to me. I just wasn't cooling off much during the walk breaks, but I still felt ok. The wheels fell off somewhere after the 10 mile marker. I started walking not long before I saw my friends from NTX Runners (who were awesome and brought ice and gummy bears for the runners) and I never made it back to a run after that. I went from thinking I might still be able to feel good at the finish if I just walk to, "Please, God, just let me make it to the finish line." Several times I stopped in the grass, thinking I was going to throw up. Victoria and Charisma were right by my side, pouring cold water down my back and offering to call for medics. I told them to go ahead several times, not wanting to ruin their race/training run, but they wouldn't leave me and I'm so grateful for that. Quite a few runners stopped to check on me or offer help. One woman literally took the ice out of her bra and told me to put it in mine. I'm certain that's taking the phrase, "I'd give you the shirt off my back" to the highest level of sincerity.

We finally made it to the finish line and I was at least able to convince Victoria & Charisma to run across the finish line. That's the first time I've ever walked across a finish line. I hope it's the last. I'm home now, showered, with a little food in my belly and feeling decent. I didn't take any nutrition during the race (though I took water/nuun at every opportunity and carried my own bottle, so I was never without) and wasn't able to stomach food for awhile after the race. But when I got hungry I was craving cheese. I ate a couple cheese sticks out of the fridge and my mom (who was out with the kids) brought home fried mozzarella sticks. So yummy! I'm feeling almost good enough to get out and eat some Mexican food.

 My stepdaughter medal with her sisters.