So we met this morning at about 7 am. This is the crew that rode up together.
Ginny, myself, Wendy, Tirsa and Amy all enjoyed a nice ride up. And we even left on time! Now, the funny starts right away. I told everyone about my dream where I had accidentally been given the wrong drug by the pharmacist, which whacked me out for the half marathon, made my friends call my husband to come watch out for me, and made me walk naked from one shower to another with no memory of any of it, offending an old woman along the way. Thank goodness that was just a dream! I'd hate to offend an old woman.
Then as soon as we get dropped off by Amy, Tirsa and I start walking towards the registration table when I realize I left my running bib in Amy's van...the one that was driving away to the beginning of the 10k race! I turn heel and high tail it across a bumpy meadow trying to intercept the van. In my hands I'm holding an energy gel pack and my gps watch. I'm thinking, as I'm sprinting, that I'll throw the gel pack at the van first, and then if that doesn't get their attention, I'll have to sacrifice the gps watch and chunk that next. I finally flag them down as they are making their way to the exit and am able to grab my bib and pin it on my shirt. There are no pictures of that escapade.
Then, we spend 30 mins warming up inside the hospital, trying to empty our bowels and bladders, and stretching. We meet up with Nichole and the race begins. Somewhere around mile 4 or 5, some girl pulls up alongside us and starts asking me where I got my running pants, what kind they were, etc... She tells me that I look great in them and she just can't get over how awesome they look on me! We all had a great laugh at that and everyone decides to go buy a pair just like mine so they can have awesome butt when running. Then my friend Amy takes a picture as I'm crossing the finish line of my butt and guess what, it's not so awesome, so I don't know what this woman was talking about! And no, you will not see that picture here! Although if you were unlucky enough to catch a glimpse of it today on facebook before it was kindly deleted, you'll know what I was talking about. Anyway, I digress. So, we keep pace with each other at about 10-10:45 mph until about mile 7.5 when I have to slow it down and Nichole keeps going. I never saw that speedy demon again until the finish line! Thank goodness Tirsa already made her goal of running without stopping at the last half marathon and she stayed by me like I was her faithful old running dog! I only walked for a minute and then we carried on. Tirsa is awesome to run distance with because she can keep talking and telling you all sorts of stories and all I have to do is nod and acknowledge that I really am interested and listening and she keeps on chatting! Thank goodness for that! Finally, at about mile 11 I send her on her way and I walk for another minute while sucking down my energy gel pack that almost made an early demise and it gives me the kick I need to pick it back up and run to the end! I don't know about ya'll, but I think I look much healthier in this picture than I did in my first half marathon finishing lap! But I must confess that I made a concerted effort to look chipper this time around!
Now what really made this awesome was the fact that my 10k buddies were already done and waiting for us to cross the finish line. I'm telling you, there is little else as motivating as having your loved ones cheering you on across that line. Right before the last bend, I look over and see my friend Ginny watching for me. That cheered my heart right up and as I got closer, she ran with me to the finish. You can see her black legs in the grass and she was telling me all about how awesome I was. Made me choke up a little that she loved me that much! But the cool part was that after I looked at the pictures and saw Nichole crossing, and then Tirsa crossing, I realized that Ginny was in both of those pictures, just waiting for me to make an appearance! Truly a great friend!
Wendy comes running up and tells me that the announcer will call out my name as I get closer to the finish line and how awesome it was to hear that! And guess what, she was right! He says, "And now we have number 480, Jennifer Fryer! And what a cheering section she has!" Or something along those lines because my friends all started whooping and hollering for me as I got closer!
It was awesome! Here we all are at the end!
Here we have Wendy, Ginny, Joy W, Amy, Tirsa, myself, and Nichole. Then we decide to do a goofy pose because that's what grown women do, and I thought we were all doing the stupid one I did for my last race where I pretended to be ready to take off? Remember that one? Well, they were all showing off their muscles and I was pretending to run again... Here, just take a look for yourself.
So cool, right? I'm still not sure what Nichole was trying to do...
The awesome peeps who ran the half marathon got a medal! But really it was because our registration fee was $15 more... But we liked them so much that we tried to make out with them.
Now ask me if I will do it again and I'll tell you that yes, I will most definitely do it again!! I love it, even though I still haven't ran one without stopping all the way through. That's going to be my next goal. Until then, happy day to you all!!!!!
Love,
Jenny
