I wish I could say that I was able to sleep until my next run on January 18. But, that was not the case. I was working 15-17 hour days and not feeling the love at all! January is the cruelest of months for me. And then on January 16 family started arriving. January 17 we all trekked over to the George R. Brown Convention Center and picked up our race day packets. January 18 we are up at 4 a.m. and out the door at 4:45 a.m. Somehow I calculated our travel time incorrectly. Normally we have plenty of time to park and arrive before the masses. Not so this year. We barely made it to the Port-A-Potties before it was time to walk to our Corrals for the start of the Houston Half Marathon.
The weather was perfect on this running day. It was 47 degrees when we started and the temperature rose to the high 50's. No wind. Man, it doesn't get better than this. The run was going smoothly and we were closing in on the finish line, .1 kilometer to go. And then, WHAM, man down! Wait, that "man" is me! Ouchie wawa . . . major calf cramp on left leg and right leg numb. Thanks to the superb medical volunteers I was uprighted immediately and told to put weight on my legs and walk it out. They were right. The finish line was right there and like Julie Moss (triathlete) I crumbled. But, I was fortunate, I was able to run the final 100 yards to the finish line.
There are many reasons why I run, but I can tell you that the main reason I run half marathons is to acquire bling. Yep, I'm all about the hardware. Well, guess what??? They ran out of medals about 15 people or so in front of me. What????!!!! Are you kidding me? They assure me I will receive a medal in the mail and send me on my merry way to pick up my finisher's shirt. So, barely able to walk and about ready to pass out, I make my way to the shirt pickup line and yep, you guessed it . . . out of shirts. Hmm . . . now that's not funny! No medal AND no shirt!
But, the show must go on. The family and I had another wonderful party. It warms my heart that my family travels from out of state to join me. This year there was one brother, nephew, niece and B-guy that ran with me. Well, okay, they didn't "run" with me . . . they are way faster, but they participated with me. Afterwards more brothers, cousins, nieces, nephews joined us in celebrating. So much fun!
It's been almost two weeks since we foolishly ran 13.1 miles and yesterday, the medal and shirt arrived in the mail. Oh, HAPPY day!
So, here's the lesson: Do not stop at the Port-A-Potties while waiting for the start of the race. This stopover put us literally at the back of the line. We crossed the start line 38 minutes after the gun went off and unfortunately we didn't pass enough people to get to the finish before the medals ran out. I'm thinking if I hadn't crumpled at the end . . . well maybe . . . No matter, I got my medal; I'm happy.
And once again in my quest to stop this nonsense of Half Marathon running, B-Guy and I foolishly registered the day early registration closed. WHAT???!!!
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