Rock N' Roll Marathon

Last year I made the pact with myself to start running, and in being who I am. I became obsessed and decide well I can run a few miles sooooo surely I can certainly run 13.1 for the PF Chang's Half Marathon in Phoenix. Slightly insane, slightly daring, and inspired by Lauren in San Antonio (ohmypuddin)... I decided what hell... I am going to go for it.



The Prep:
Make the commitment: You can make sure you don't wuss out on the event, by telling everyone, collecting money for charity, and then sucking it up and going through with it. :)

Training:
This is easy, you run A LOT, and you run for a long time, at least 8-10miles a few times... I decided throughout my training, I probably ran about 350miles total.

The Outfit:
Of course for me the biggest concern, what am I going to wear for the event? I collected money for the American Cancer Society in honor of the family members I have lost or who have survived cancer... it was a noble cause and inspired me, so after writing down all the names of the people I would honor, I had to figure out how in the world to get all these names on the back of my shirt! While there were significant nearly shirt ripping moments of frustration.. I was VERY pleased with the final product.... Also word of the wise, if you put your own name on the front of your shirt.. people WILL yell for you, and personally I think, this kinda Rocks!



The Race:

The big day arrived!! Being burdened with extreme anxiety and excitement I've decided that in the future I should consider drugging myself asleep the night before... anyways, around 2am I finally fell asleep, and when the alarm went off at 5, let me tell you, it was rough.

35000 People registered for the event.... yes 35,000 runners ... which also means for your family, it's a needle in a haystack to find you. As I expected many people opted for costume, tutu's, turtle shells, Guitar hats, the the token Elvis's.... but honestly, unless you are 10 feet tall, and holding a fog horn, I am not sure you would ever stand out among the crowd.

Arriving at the runners area prior to the event was a learning experience, people take leads from Derek Zoolander and rock trash bags as jackets and most everyone looks like they came out of a goodwill store, why you ask? Cause they did, so tip number five billion from runners in large events.... there are designated volunteers, whose entire purpose is to pick up the clothes that people literally strip off their bodies as they begin to run ... so your first miles in a marathon include memories or flying gloves, jackets, pants... hats...... no you don't get the clothes back, hence why you shop the goodwill, so the next jacket you buy from the goodwill there is a chance it saw a marathon in its past.

For me the event was inspiring... and 13.1 miles of feeling more like a pinball machine dodging walkers and slower runners, I will follow up with tip #3 of this post, know that when you input your anticipated finish time into the registration, one should always LIE, because everyone before you did as well... and in order to be properly placed among the crowd of moving bodies, you should tell them you will finish earlier that you actually plan to, then you will probably be with the people who run at the same speed as you, this probably doesn't make sense, but if you run a marathon someday... You will learn the hard way, that what I am saying is the truth.


I ran, my family cheered me on, at about mile 2, 5 and 7.... yes all those points, they rode their bikes the entire way... I felt like a celebrity and a fellow running called my husband the papparazi .... haha, she wasn't wrong. He was wonderful, as was the rest of my family in matching shirts! After mile 7, for some reason ... I never managed to catch back up with the family, cause I was lightening fast.. haha, not really. But I did increase my over all mile speed by over 30seconds a mile over the duration of the race.... which for something that long is pretty darn great. I completed the half marathon in 2 hours 24 minutes, and placed in the top half..... not to shabby!


They have a video of me (and everyone else) crossing the finishline.... I watched the video and remember the exact feeling.... and what I thought.. I will share it with you now.




All in all, the event was amazing.. it was an experience, it was the biggest thing I have ever seen, been a part of, and trained for in my life and now... I'm hooked. I registered for the full Marathon in June, running the coast of California, I am crazy, I know it... but half is only half to me... I'm an all in sorta person... so here goes nothing, but blisters, and most likely my toenails....

600miles of running in 17 weeks..... it's going to be a long spring, but I have faith.