I was struggling at this point. My goal was to do 3:00 run with 3:00 walk. That latest all of maybe 2 miles before it became run as much as possible (typically about 20 seconds) and walk the rest of the 3 minutes…or just walk. But I started off strong! Man, it was hot outside.
I was so thankful for my ironteam on the run! They definitely helped me pull through in a big way. At the start of the run, I saw the whole group and Renee and Jennie ran a bit with me to tell me I was looking good and that they’d see me after I went across the bridge and back.
Now I didn’t look much at the race course prior to the race. I had just heard it was flat, so it couldn’t be too bad, right? (Well, other than the fact that it was 26.2 miles.) It started off nice, although running right past a restaurant with a bunch of people sitting outside drinking beers was not a welcome sight. I really just wanted to have a seat at one of their tables and have a cold one!
The course started in downtown, and pretty soon turned on the bridge that I had traversed across many times prior that weekend that went into Indiana. Where there’s a bridge, there is a hill. I believe this was my first unplanned walk moment.
I conquered the bridge and made my way back into Kentucky. At the bottom of the bridge was my ironteam (again, so thankful they were there).
When I turned the corner, Jennie hopped on the street with me and stuck with me for probably a mile or so (who knows – everything is pretty blurry at this point). Jennie made a comment at one point about how people probably thought she was participating in jean shorts. In fact, one spectator said, “Great job ladies!” Funny. While Jennie was running with me I spotted a family with ice cream. Mmmm…ice cream.
Then I was off by myself for a while. There were still tons of people on the course because it was a double loop course – so most people were completing their second loop and there were quite a few just on their first (both behind me and in front of me). I had all but given up running at this point, except for a few bursts of energy. I knew my goal of finishing in 14 hours was shot because my average pace kept creeping up past 13 minute miles and then 14 minute miles. Eh…whatever. My goal was to finish, and finish I would! Again, there were lots of people laying on the side of the road due to who knows what ailments. I heard a couple people saying they needed to be picked up and that they were done.
I entered a pretty low place starting at mile 8ish. My stomach hurt and I was dizzy. I tried eating pretzels but my mouth was too dry and they were getting stuck in my throat. Sports drink made me feel even more sick. All I could do was drink water, but I knew that was just flushing my system out of all salt and electrolytes. I could eat oranges as well, so I consumed probably a whole orange throughout the course. But that was the only solid food I could manage, so it wasn’t looking too good after over a half a day of exercise.
And then I started to get dizzy. I could tell I wasn’t really walking in a straight line and I started to freak out a little bit. What if I ended up on the side of the road? What if I passed out? I just kept saying, “one foot in front of the other”. Luckily the dizziness eventually went away enough that it didn’t bother me much.
People were pretty friendly and chatty at this point still (not so much on the second loop). One random guy kept talking to me as we kept crossing paths. Another random guy asked me if we were on mile 22. I scoffed at him and said, “I’m only on my first lap.” He apologized, but I guess I should feel honored that I appeared like I could actually be 10 miles further along than I actually was!
I made it to the turn-around point in downtown to head back out on my second loop and cursed the race directors for playing such a cruel joke. The course goes right by the finisher chute….the lights were blaring in my direction and the crowd was cheering – but I still had about 10 miles to go. At least I knew what was waiting for me at the finish! And it looked pretty awesome.
I had spoken to Jennie about having them all see me at the turn around point, and I was looking forward to that. I saw my parents, but no Eric and the rest of the crew. I asked my parents where they were and they said they lost them. I was definitely disappointed, but at least I saw my parents.
On my second loop I decided to give a cup of cola a shot. I’ve read lots of forums about how the cola gives people an extra boost of energy. All it gave me was an awful stomach ache. Boo! Then I decided to attempt what is reported as the gloriousness of chicken broth. I figured it would be good for me anyways because of the much needed salt. Yeah, that made me pretty sick to my stomach as well. So back to the water and oranges it was for me. I wasn’t running at all at this point, so who needs extra energy?
With about 7 miles left I was walking in the dark. The dark was definitely much welcomed due to the decrease in temps, but it was still hot out. All of the sudden I hear my name being called out by a familiar voice. I looked around in surprise and under a street light I see Eric, Jennie, Renee, Cindy, and Kevin – Ironteam Jessica (minus my parents)! They had traveled out to almost the farthest point on the race course to cheer me on. Oh how happy I was to see them!
(Scary, in the dark picture – but very happy to see some friendly faces!)
They all waited around for me to hit the farthest turn around and walked with me a bit more (and sang a little Queen for me and the rest of the people around me). At this point I only had about 4 miles to go. I knew I would be able to finish with plenty of time left, it was just a matter of how fast I could walk. Let me say, my feet HATED me by this point. I could tell my little right toe had a huge blister on it, and my left big toenail felt like someone was hitting it with a hammer (I’m still waiting for it to fall off). But I could suffer through the pain to get to that finish line.
The finish line was awesome. Lots of lights, lots of people. With about a mile left, the spectator numbers started picking up. Lots of people were congratulating me and saying that I was almost there. With less than a mile left there were two corners to turn and then you are facing the finish line with the big, blaring lights. I got pretty choked up when I realized it was finally going to end, but I held it together to run through the finish chute and give Eric a high five. It was so much fun to see my family and friends right there as I finished. Just awesome – I’m so glad I have some video on the finish (which I will share in my final post) to look back on and remember that moment. It’s all a blur in my head, so I’m glad I have that moment on tape.
Once I finished I was escorted by a volunteer to get my picture taken and exit the finisher chute. I had to step aside for a guy to be carted off in a wheelchair, but I was feeling pretty golden, other than some serious nausea. I really just wanted to crawl in a ball and sleep.
Getting choked up.
Trying to hold it together (which I guess I do by sticking my tongue out and licking my disgusting face)
Finisher’s picture
Irondad
Ironfamily
Ironfiance
Ironteam – listening as I probably share the story about how a coach was telling one of her athletes on the run course that she probably lost 9 lbs. (I ended up losing 8 – so I guess she was right on the money).
Here’s how my run broke down (in more ways than one):
FIRST RUN SEGMENT
3.39 mi. (44:59)
13:16/mile (slow)
SECOND RUN SEGMENT
8.2 mi. (1:12:44)
15:07/mile (slower)
THIRD RUN SEGMENT
13.1 mi. (1:12:16)
14:54/mile
FOURTH RUN SEGMENT
15.33 mi. (35:01)
15:42/mile
FIFTH RUN SEGMENT
20.1 mi. (1:18:52)
16:32/mile (a snail could move faster)
SIXTH RUN SEGMENT
25.04 mi. (1:19:37)
16:07/mile
FINAL RUN SEGMENT
26.2 mi. (17:56)
15:27/mile
TOTAL RUN
26.2 mi. (6:41:25)
15:19/mile (I’m a pretty darn fast walker :)!)
1859 overall (out of 2,995)
85 in division (out of 100)
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