July 4, 2009

My alarm went off at 5:30am and I thought "Since when do I get at up at 5:30am to go RUN!?" And then I got excited. I put on my new outfit I got for the race (If I was going to run a 10K, I deserved to get a new running outfit!). I debated what I should eat for breakfast...I had never run this early and hadn't figured out the eating/drinking thing yet. Whoops! I had an apple and some water and off we went to meet Danielle. This was also Ruddley's first road race as well- although I am sure he wouldn't admit it, I bet he was just as nervous as I was. As we were waiting for the race to start, Danielle shared a story about how when she runs races she often worries that she will be the last one and looks over her shoulder to make sure she is not. Little did I know, that story would haunt me the entire race. The Star Spangled Banner was sung, the gun went off and off I went...literally. I was so excited, all this work and training and I was finally running a race. I had my ipod on and Kelly Pickler's song "best days of your life" came on. I was feeling great...until I hit the first mile and the guy who was giving out mile splits yelled "8:38". Holy shit! I had never run that fast....ever! In fact, I am a slow runner. I usually run a 10 minute mile. Danielle was long gone, Ruddley was up ahead and I tried my best to recover from my sprint to the 1st mile (of course looking over my shoulder every now and then to make sure I wasn't last). This was also about the time a guy passed me while juggling 3 balls. That made me feel real good:-) Somewhere about mile 3.5 I realized I needed to use the bathroom. I tried to convince myself I only had just under 3 miles left to run and that I could make it. Mmmm, not so much! I darted into the woods, did what I needed to do and was back at it. Although it was hard to get back into my rhythm and I ended up walking for a little bit, which I was not happy at all about. Oh well. I ran through lots of back roads of Freeport before finally turning onto the main street and I knew I was almost there. I passed the mile 5 marker and just as I got to the mile 6 marker I started to feel very sick, very quickly. I only had .2 miles left to run. I could see the finish line and all I wanted to do was run hard through the finish line and get a good action shot of me by the race photographers. I did not mean me mid-puke as a good action shot. I almost lost it a few times and as soon as I crossed the finish line I looked very hard for a trash can or a building I could hide behind. I had no luck finding either. There was nothing I could do...that apple I had for breakfast came up right in the middle of the street among all the people who had just finished the race. I felt awesome! But, I finished and that's all I had hoped for.