Since SpiderDad did such an excellent job giving us a recap of his weekend flying solo with the four kids, here's the weekend race report from the eyes of yours truly...fresh from the ING Miami Half Marathon!
A couple months back, when my West Coast running buddy Vera first brought up the idea of meeting up with her in Miami to celebrate her birthday in true jock style (by running a race, of course!), I was lured by the thought of escaping grey New England for sunnier skies. But I chose to ignore some important details....like say, the fact that it's my OFF SEASON. This winter's been all about spending long, boring hours in the pool rather than pounding the pavement. But I said yes, because it's Miami after all!
First & foremost, Miami is now ranked my favorite race destination EVER....despite the fact that my actual race time plummeted to set a new, all time PW (as in Personal Worst).
Seriously, who wouldn't want to spend the day before a race doing this?...
We finally dragged our glutes off the beach and headed to the ING race expo to pick up our swanky race gear. It was impossible not to get psyched after seeing the sheer number of athletes participating (24,000!).
Look at how confident and happy I look posing with my favorite traveling buddies...I had no clue that in less than 24 hrs I would be brought to the edge of hell & back...(insert pause for dramatic effect)...
The 3:30 am wake up call on race morning was our first hurdle, the 85% humidity level was a close second. But it didn't take long to rally with the level of excitement down at the race start.
Putting 24,000 anxious runners in one space can be pretty dicey, but ING did a stand up job organizing the chutes and pumping up the crowd. And as I approached the start I was feeling downright giddy...
And I stayed pretty giddy until about mile 6, when it dawned on me that my last month of panic training was not as effective as I had hoped. By mile 10, my sloppy gait became a shuffle. Luckily the scenery (gorgeous) and the spectators (aplenty) kept me from throwing in the towel, although it was slightly unsettling to receive a text message from Vera as I passed mile 11...."Just finished....where are you? Lets head to the beer truck!"....Ugh!
I'm not sure how I made it to the finish, but I vaguely remember crossing the line slightly listing to the right. It took about a half hour of lying on the grass whining before I was revived enough to get the token post-race photo....notice that glimmer of 'just-effin-shoot-me' in my eyes...
My first stop after the race? Starbuck's of course! Because when you're dehydrated, cramping, and faint, there's nothing better than a Grande Soy Latte. And note, I'm still listing to the right...
But all was not lost, as I was still in the best possible place for post-race recovery....
Luckily it was only a matter of hours before I was back to my normal self...
So, do I regret flying all the way to Miami only to have the worst race time of my life?
Not a chance. As a matter of fact, I'm already thinking about going back next year to give that course a serious ass kickin'. Because as I learned, in Miami you just gotta go BIG...
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