The Schwartz's vs Zoom through the Zoo

This past Thursday was the big day!  The race I've been training for for 8 weeks now.  The one I've been super nervous about because it was a "4 mile" race--the longest I've ever done.  The one that I wish I could have backed out on but my good friend Bekah was driving 4 hours round-trip  to "run with me".  (She's much faster than me so while we may start at the line together, she'll be cooled off and stretched out before I get to the finish.)  While training for this race I had a couple of really strong runs that gave me that great endorphin rush and runner's high, and plenty of hard runs where the humidity was so high I felt like I was running through a marsh with a wet rag in my mouth.  Early in the week I finally figured out it has a lot to do with the weather.  The day I ran 3.5 miles I felt like I could easily have finished and done 4 because it was a cool day with a nice breeze.  The next run it was sweltering hot and I had no one running with me so I wussed out and only ran 1 mile because I thought I was going to die.  That being said, when I woke up Thursday morning to an overcast sky I was elated.  It was a PERFECT running day!  The course was also through Overton Park so it was mostly shaded.  It was a fantastic day and place for this race.

Here's Bekah and I posing for pictures before the race.  Do you like my shirt?  My friend Eliza helped me freezer paper stencil it.  So I made it myself!  Just in case you can't tell the front says "Running 4 Two".  It also had a fun message on the back.  Want to see?  Well, you'll just have to wait until the end of the post.  Bekah is the one that got me started running.  She's a rock star and has run a ton more races than me (even signs up to run races in places that she's going to be on vacation) and has already won some race hardware in a few local 5Ks she's done.  She ran beside me for about 2 minutes before our natural paces separated me to the back of the pack.  I made up for this though by sprinting out the start line to make her catch up with me before she kicked my butt so I could say for about 3 minutes I was ahead of the great Bekah and her Buzz Lightyear shoes.  =)

Chris, my wonderful and supportive husband, also signed up and came to the race.  Unfortunately he's had a tough time training with a few injuries (like nearly slicing off the tip of his big toe) so he is a super trooper for coming out and running what he could.  He went ahead and ran his day of the C25K program and realized by the time his program was over he wasn't even at the 2 mile mark. So he turned around and came though the 1 mile finish shoot.  This was really smart because the next day he was going to help his dad work on the lake house and seeing how I couldn't walk the day after the race he probably would have been in the same boat and worthless at the lake house.  Plus, the other really nice thing was that he was able to be there at the finish line for me to cheer me in.  (I finished before him at the last race we did so it was great to hear him tell me how proud he was of me as I was collapsing after I finished.)

Anyway, thanks to my handy dandy garmin I can tell you they LIED about it only being a 4 mile race.  My read out said 4.14 miles and that I finished in 49:12 with an average pace of 11:52 min/mile.  So while I didn't get my 48 minute goal that I set for myself, I can take solace in the fact that based off my pace if it had only been 4 miles I would have made the goal.  The little slip they gave me said I was #419 out of all the women to finish.  I haven't bothered looking up the official results to see how many women there were overall.  It doesn't matter.  I'm really proud of myself.  I ran the race the whole way without stopping to walk (or pee) or even get water.  I took the cups on the run spilling most it on myself and tossing as I kept going.  I know my 12 minute pace is not impressive to real runners, but it's what I trained at.  I had to keep telling myself when I'd glance down that I was running my race at my pace and I was doing a good job.  (Especially when people pushing jogging strollers passed me.)  The only time I got a little bummed was when I could see people who were doing intervals (running and walking) ahead of me and knowing that they'd still finish before me even though they were walking because their running pace was faster than my slow and steady pace.  (In my head I was a little snarky though and wanted to jog pass them and say to them, "when I'm done I'll be able to say I ran the race...what will you be able to say?"  But I think that was just the pregnancy hormones and a little bit of jealousy over their better time talking.)

Post race--look how crazy sweaty I am compared to Bekah.  And red faced!  I think my face is as red as her shirt!

The post race party was catered by Hog Wild.  So I chomped down on some yummy bbq and since I don't like baked beans, the traditional bbq side dish, I decided that I should get 2 brownies.  You know, 1 with powdered sugar, 1 without.  It's logical.  Our race bib also came with 2 tickets for "adult libations".  We joked about selling our beer tickets since I obviously wouldn't be using them.  I will tell you that I was a little bummed that there was no chocolate milk after the race.  I know to some that might sound gross, but a cold thing of chocolate milk is the best thing for me after a race.  It cools me down and coats my dry throat.  

After the race I was rocking an awesome runner's high thinking "that was great".  And "I could totally train for a half marathon after I have this baby".  Or I even went home and looked up the running calendar on racesonline.com to see what was coming up soon for me to sign up for.  However, by about 10:30 that evening my runners high had worn off and my body was pretty ticked off about that run.  My sciatic nerve seized up and my whole left side was just in extreme pain.  I couldn't get into bed without Chris's help.  My knees were screaming as I could hear the bone on bone grinding in both of them.  At 3 am I woke up for my usual middle of the night tinkle and I could not move.  Chris had to help push me out of bed and then it took about 5 minutes (I'm not exaggerating) to walk the short distance around the bed and to the toilet.  I had to hold on to anything and everything for dear life to take the weight off my left side so I could "walk" to the bathroom.  And then I cried a little when I sat on the toilet because of how much pain putting weight on my left hip shot through my whole body.  I didn't even bother trying to make it back to my side of the bed.  Chris's is closer to the bathroom so I pushed him over and climbed in his side.  The next morning I was pretty stiff and wanted to die as I got ready for the day, but luckily by about 10 in the morning everything was loosened out and I wasn't wincing in pain with every step or walking like Frankenstein.  At that point, my thoughts were I'M NEVER RUNNING AGAIN!  (But I'll be out there Monday running, especially with my game plan of restarting C25K.)  

So here's the back of my shirt since you've been reading for this long.

Since we lined up closer to the front than we should have (my fault) I had plenty of really good runners pass me and tell me congratulations or how they liked my shirt.  One person cheered for me and said "wahoo baby on board".  Another lady gave me a dissertation on how important it is to keep running through the whole pregnancy as she passed me pushing a toddler in a jogging stroller.  Others I could just hear discussing my shirt as they ran around me.  As the field thinned out and I found myself at the back with the slow runners and interval joggers I no longer heard the accolades but the shirt's message started to be motivational.  There were a few runners in particular who I kept leap frogging with and sure enough every time I got ahead of them they'd pick up the pace.  I think they were determined not to let Peggy Preggo come in ahead of them.  The only one I found annoying was this one particular kid (I say because he looked younger than me) who would walk until I passed him and then he'd take off sprinting until he felt he was a good distance ahead of me and would do that over and over.  Him, I wanted to trip.  

I really want to find another race to do just so I have an excuse to wear my new fun running shirt.  Gibson 5K sounds like fun, any takers?