1) At some point during the night I dreamed I ran the entire 1/2 marathon in 2 hours and 15 minutes. My goal was 2:40, so 2:15 would be pretty huge! Waking up from that dream was awesome, unlike dream #2
2) Dreamed Jamie and I left our hotel room and kept forgetting a bunch of crap. Every time we went back to the room, it became increasingly difficult to find our room, and then increasingly difficult to find what we were looking for in the room due to it being trashed. Eventually, I couldn't find my bib, which meant I wouldn't be able to run.
Combine both of those dreams with waking in a panic several times during the night thinking I was oversleeping, it wasn't the greatest night of sleep I've ever had.
Ok, anyway, I woke up this morning feeling really anxious and nervous. I've trained and been really good about it, so I knew there wasn't a lot to be nervous about, but I was. I was nervous about losing my way on the course and being cold and being the slowest runner, etc.
That being said, I was totally fine! I did great, in fact! I decided in the end to keep my music playing, which was totally a good call. I paused it when there was some entertainment, but in the end, I was really glad to have the tunes. I also ran with my app going on my iPhone to make sure I was running at a decent pace. I took off the notices about my distance and elapsed time and just kept my pace and average pace on the announcements so I could just focus on my pace and not how much further we had to go.
I had a few key moments in the race today that absolutely made me smile. The main thing I really enjoyed was people cheering and holding up signs telling us how awesome we were (and that there was beer at the finish line - a total lie, by the way). There were a few times where they said just the right thing to make me go faster or just keep pushing through. For the life of me, I can't remember what they were, but it was awesome.
My favorite music moment was at about mile 11. I was starting to get tired and could feel my hips really starting to ache...and then Eye of the Tiger came on my iPod! I instantly felt 75% better and get myself into get for the next two miles. I had to retrain myself from yelling out to people around me that this song was playing on my iPod...
Next favorite moment came around mile 12 when I realized there was only a mile left. I was stoked. I could feel my body ready to push harder and I kicked it into high gear. I felt like I was flying, and it was awesome.
Finally, I crossed the finish line. Now, that itself is pretty kick-ass as far as I'm concerned, but I just happened to cross the finish line at the exact same time as the first female full-marathon finisher and the crowd was going crazy screaming, clapping, and hollering and I'm not going to lie - that was pretty kick ass. My favorite thing about this though was the announcer on the loud speaker nearly screaming "you've done it! you have done it! Way to go, you have done it!" I secretly said to myself, "yeah, I did!!!"
I finished in 2:39:44. I was hoping for 2:40, so that's pretty damn good in my books!
Jamie and I enjoyed long, hot showers before getting lunch and beer and then shopping (ok, and then another beer) and have been talking about how beautiful the course was for the Monumental. We have also been talking a lot about how much our hips, knees, and legs in general ache like crazy and how difficult it is to get up out of chairs. But the best thing we talk about is the fact that this morning we ran a 1/2 marathon - all of it!
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