Finally we are to race day!! Originally my plan was to run the half with both Clark and Cathy. Once Cathy got to do the Dumbo, Clark and I decided to just run the race together and try and push a little for time. This was a huge change in plans, as I have not been training at all to run a race fast. I was up at 3:30am to start getting ready, and we were out the door around 4:20am. We stopped by the bakery at our hotel and picked up a bagel and banana for me. I knew going into this race my stomach was not very good with all the crap I had eaten over the last 2 previous weeks. I was hoping the bagel would help, but I had no appetite and felt like I was force feeding myself. I ended up throwing a lot of the food away. It was a hot humid day, so I was very glad to be starting so early before the sun was up. We made our way to corral A with no problems at all. It was soooo nice just walking out of the hotel and right to the start with no buses involved.
I had to buy the official race photos so I would have pictures to blog. Here we are before the race started. I bought the new skirt at the expo. It is a little wild for me, but I figured it would match lots of colored shirts, so it could be worn often. I really liked the location of the pockets for gels. Since my garmin was dead with no signs of coming back to life, I felt a little naked (no garmin, no belt). As an aside I will say that it has been great running without a garmin for the last several weeks. Running just to run and not focusing so much on time is kind of nice.
Here is one of Clark's pictures he took walking to our corral!
Clark took this picture of me in the corral!
I took a picture of him!
People talking before we started. Alison Sweeny from Biggest Loser was running and got up and talked.
Okay here start some of the race photos I bought! We started the race really far up which was a bit of a new experience. Usually I love to pass people, but we were so close to the start that there were not many people to pass. Instead we got passed some. We ran thru the parks in the first few miles. We could have stopped at many of the characters, but nobody running around us was stopping and since we were trying to run a little faster we decided to just wave and move on. I think I turned my music on by mile 3. I was a little worried b/c it looked like there would not be any bathroom opportunities once we left the park. I knew that at mile 5-6 my stomach would start acting up. That seems to happen on all my runs lately and even more so with all the unhealthy food I had been eating.
Within the first 100 feet of this race Clark's garmin flew off his arm and the band broke. That sucked. He carried it most of the way. I carried it for a couple of miles.
More pictures in Disneyland Park
Now we are in California Adventure Park
After we got out of the parks and around mile 5-6, we were passing a church with a lot of choir people singing. I was thrilled and thanking God that there was a port-a-potty by them. I knew I was killing our time, but we were doing this run for fun and honestly there was NO way I could not stop. I apologized to Clark and stopped as fast as I could. Then we were off again. I hate how in so many photos they cut off Clark. We did not buy his photos. You will just have to take my word for it. He was running with me. Sometimes he was right behind me. I thought he was doing this b/c when he was in front it would mentally defeat me, and I would end up saying, "we have to slow down" but if he was slightly behind me, I would go faster. He said he was doing it b/c I was all over the place and he was just trying to stay out of my way. I know a few times he said I would say I was going to slow down, but then I wouldn't slow down. I don't know. I was just running!!
Lots of smiling!
I knew going around here I gave high 5's to a lot so kids in the stands.
Here we are crossing the finish line. I had a great time. I love racing. There was one girl ahead of me much of the time that was killing me. I passed her at one point, but then around mile 11 I got a horrible cramp and had to slow down and she passed me. I never passed her again. During the last 0.1 mile however someone tried to pass me. No way was I letting that happen. I sprinted that last bit. We passed some, and I was determined nobody was passing me at that point (nobody but Clark would had to place one ahead of me...even if I thought I crossed first). Oh I almost forgot to mention that there was a guy juggling the entire way. He beat us. It was amazing watching him.
Here we are with our 1/2 marathon medal.
Here I am with my Coast to Coast medal. I love the bling!!
Clark and I are not ones to hang around long after a race. We wanted to get back to the kids b/c we had a very busy day planned. It was another fun race in the books. Glad we got to run it together.
I tried to get my race certificate to show up on here but it wouldn't allow me to post it so I will just type it out...
Time: 145:46
Place: 403/15868
Gender Place: 88/10017
Division Place 21/1600
