June - San Diego!!

June Half Marathon- San Diego!

I was soooo excited about this half marathon!!  Everything about this half was lining up to be awesome…  It wasn’t supposed to be crazy hilly and the weather was supposed to be 65 degrees and overcast.  This is a huge Team in Training event and I had the incredible inspiration of Meggie on my jersey to keep me going.  It was in San Diego, which is where my Mom grew up and is literally like a second home to me.  I had my Aunt Linda and Cousin Christine that had planned to be at the race at mile 10 to cheer me on.   Everything was coming together…this was my equivalent of a personal record perfect storm, in the most positive sense.

A huge part of the perfect storm that I didn’t account for was my Virginia Team from Team in Training.   I’ve talked about the wonderful Coach Bob before and he was there  to get us prepped and ready for the race.  But I have to give a shout out to two wonderful men that I’m completely friend smitten by…Steven Jenkins and David Hinshaw.  These two men became such fast friends and the support that I felt from both of them was completely unaccounted for in my perfect storm calculations.  It pushed my perfect storm conditions to Perfect Tropical Storm Conditions.  I have such gratitude to them for taking good care of me.  Additionally, our Virginia Team consisted of the lovely Jennifer and Roger whom also became such a huge part of my experience.  I didn’t expect this level of love and support from seemingly strangers. I hope that I returned some level of support to them throughout the weekend.  They are all amazing people who helped push me to a new level for this race.

There was only me standing in my way of a personal record (PR) on this race and I knew that I had a score to settle with myself.   No more complaining.  No more excuses.  It was time to see how hard I can push myself. This was my half way point in 12in12in2012 and it was time for a hard fought victory. I went into the race telling myself to leave nothing on the field.  It was game time.

As Jennifer, Roger and I stood in Corral 18, Roger gave me a big grin and said ‘I can feel it, you are going to PR this race, you got this’ and a huge smile spread across my face.  And off we went!

I kept a sub-10min mile pace and dropped down to a 9 min mile pace on the down hills overall.  And overall I felt pretty good.  I was smiling and waving.  All the while thinking of my honored hero, Meggie.  The San Diego RnR is known for a horrible stretch that is banked with a bad left-right incline.  And it goes on for a few miles, so your knees and hips start to ache from being at different levels.  But just when I really started to hurt, I looked up and there was COACH BOB!!!  Thankfully, he ran with me for a mile and half and entertained me with stories of a time in Italy where he almost got arrested…almost.  As we stopped at a water stop, my heart completely dropped when I realized that I had lost a GU out of my pocket.  I could have sworn that my perfect storm was about to come to an abrupt halt.  I mentioned it to Coach Bob, who in a seemingly miraculous move pulled out a GU and handed it to me.  Have I mentioned that Coach Bob is one of my most favorite people?  Maybe even a running angel of sorts?  

I can’t tell you much about the next portion of the race.  Coach Bob had peeled off in order to support our other Team in Training runners and honestly, I just kept my head down and stayed on track. I knew the next important part of my run was mile 10 where my family was waiting.  I looked down the road to see a huge sign with Meggie’s picture on it and I knew my Aunt and Cousin were behind it.  I had to mentally slap myself in order to choke down the lump forming in my throat and the tears behind it.   This was the part of my perfect storm that I knew would be a huge pick me up for me.  Miles 10-12 are tough for me and I was starting to wear down.  To see my Aunt and Cousin out there for me was amazing.  It meant more to me than I can ever explain to them.  I gave them sweaty hugs and kisses and they sent me on my way. 

Mile 12 hurt.  I think that my body just wasn’t used to being pushed that hard.  I had to stop and walk a little bit.  I kept asking myself ‘Are you leaving it all on the field?  Are you doing your absolute best?’ and I’m honestly not sure.  I hate that I had to walk a little bit, but at the same time I know my body pretty well and am used to pushing it’s limits.  I picked it up again and pushed to the finish line with a little perceived sprint at the end.  I crossed the finish line at 2:10:43 with a brand new personal record for my best half marathon (my old one being 2:13:59 in 2009)!   

I met up with Jennifer and Roger back at the Team in Training tent. Jennifer finished her very first half marathon in 2:14, which is so awesome!  My Aunt Linda and Cousin Chris came down to the finish line and we all just relaxed and chatted.  But I still had a nagging feeling that I wasn’t happy enough about my PR. I wasn’t celebrating enough.  Why was that?  I knew I either wanted to jump up and down or curl up and bawl my eyes out from the relief.  But I was keeping myself in check because maybe it was stupid and meaningless to everyone else?  Maybe it wasn’t a big deal? 

We met up with my new found friend, David Hinshaw, who came in from his finish and quietly asked ‘How’d ya do?’  I told him that ‘I PRd’ in which he started jumping up and down and yelled a big ‘ALLLLLLLLRIIIIIIIIIIIIGHHHHT!!!  I KNEW YOU WOULD!! THAT’S SOOO AWESOME!!!’ then high fived me and gave me a huge hug.   Sometimes you need someone else to jump up and down in order to celebrate your achievement and his reaction will be something I’ll always hold special about this half. We later found out that Steven had a perfect storm also and PR'd the Marathon!  So awesome!  

You can’t always have the perfect storm race.  In fact, most times you won’t.  Long distance running isn’t for the weak of body, heart, mind or soul.   But occasionally the stars align and God blesses you with the weather, the road, the strength, the support and the inspiration to go further than you thought possible.  And family and friends to help you celebrate when you do!