Little Rock 1/2 Marathon

okay, I'm still sick so if this is a tad incoherent, I apologize in advance. Also everybody has probably moved on and are tired of the Little Rock half/full reports, but, hey, it's my blog. Ugh, that sounded petty.

Sunday started out to be a beautiful day, I don't tend to have a lot of the problems other people do with running in warmer temps this time of year--probably because I do part of my training runs in Texas during the winter so I'm used to running in cooler temps one day, then 60-80 degrees the next. But like I mentioned earlier James had already started getting sick and in hindsight I think I was starting to come down with it too. My appetite was way off Sat. which was odd because I tend to snack a lot when I'm nervous.

I wore my skirtgoddess running skirt, which totally rocks by the way. It has these awesome mesh pockets that are kind of offset on the sides. Perfect for carrying small items without them being in the way.

James kind of caught me in an awkward pose here, there would have been a better pic but a guy stepped right in front of me when he snapped the picture.

View of the crowd and the River Market area

Ready, set, go, not! I started near the back so that went on for several minutes.

The first 6 miles went great, was right on my 10 minute mile pace that I wanted to keep. The only problem was a lot of the walkers that had started up near the front were wanting to walk 3, 4, sometimes even 5 abreast so that was creating some major traffic tie-ups. I can relate to wanting to stay together but usually if you stay to the right with no more than 2 side by side things will clear out by mile 2. I knew that I hadn't ate enough the day before so my plan was to alternate water and gatorade at each water station. In hindsight I should have had gatorade at most of the stops.

Miles 7-8 I started to feel a loss of energy but was able to keep running okay. Mile 9 I began to slow down and had to start with walk breaks near the start of mile 10. Those walk breaks kept getting longer and longer!! My legs felt great, my breathing was fine, just no energy and I was starting to have chafing from my socks on the tips of my toes. One of the aid stations at this point was giving hard candy so that gave me a little boost but mostly dried out my mouth so that gave me the incentive to push hard for the next water station. Pretty much everybody around me at this point was doing like me and having to take walk breaks but for a lot of them I think it was the heat getting to them. Lots of red faces.

Mile 11.5-12 I started having the sharp pain in my right side that I always get when I haven't hydrated properly. It's not quite a stitch or a cramp, just a very sharp stabbing pain and it's always in the same place. So that meant I walked quite a bit on that section. I basically had to pick an intersection/sign/person to run to, then another landmark to walk to in order to get through it and my toes were really starting to throb by now. I caught up to a couple of women that were discussing that they were on track to finish in the 2:15 range instead of 2:30 at around mile 12.5 so that gave me incentive to keep running for the finish line. I was sooooooo happy to finally see that finish line that I didn't even notice what the clock read when I crossed it. Had to ask James afterwards.

I survived my first 1/2!!!!!

Interesting sights

-guy with a belt of stuffed monkeys

-a couple of women dressed up in Super Girl and Wonder Woman outfits

-lots of running skirts (yay!!) also overheard a conversation between a couple of girls commenting on them and saying they would never wear one and then I passed them in my cute skirt ;-)

-lots of shirts with neat sayings on them that I can't recall now because my brain is fried from being sick

I'm sure there's more that I'll recall later when I no longer have brain fog.

After I finished we didn't stay long because

1) we have a new puppy that needed looking after

2) James was sick (now that's a supportive husband that will get out and stand around for several hours while in that condition, I'm not sure what I did to deserve him--love you babe!!!)

3) I had to drive to Cullman, Al to deliver first thing Monday morning (only made it to Tuscumbia, AL before going to bed).

Several of James' friends said I was tough to be able to run 13.1 miles then drive almost 300 miles afterwards. I love that!!!

I ended up throwing up after getting home and showering after the 1/2. Just thought it was the stress of the race but it was a precursor to coming down with full blown flu symptoms. There is not a whole lot that's more miserable than being sick, having to work and not be at home in your own bed.

Here I am writing and grumbling about being sick when there was a guy that died at the finish line of the marathon, Adam Nickel. It definitely puts things in perspective so enough griping for now.