Last week I found some courage and downloaded my pictures to my computer. It was whirlwind of a summer and writing about it and seeing pictures always brings back tears so I think we'll start with the easy stuff, the fun stuff.
A few days ago my brain was flooded with feelings of the half marathon. It was SUCH a great experience. Really, one of the most fun things I've ever done and I want to write a few more memories before I move on to the other events of the summer.
I want to remember the feelings and the tears that came as I rounded a corner at the bottom of a hill knowing I just got past a hard hill without having to walk it and then seeing 15 or so people lined up on the side of the road with tall American flags and a soldier in his fatigues cheering ME on. I always feel a sense of patriotism when I race and I'm not sure why. I guess it reminds me that I'm a woman in a free country and how lucky I am to get to train and race. And then I think about how lucky I am to have a strong body that allows me to do this and I cry even more. For every tri it's been hearing the national anthem that brought on the tears and for the half it was seeing these people with their flags and a soldier.
I want to remember how happy I was when I got to mile 9 and realized I was still feeling really GOOD and that I might be able to run the whole time without walking.
And how fun it was to bust up a short steep hill while so many others were slow and/or walking and STILL feeling good and surprisingly strong. And how at the top of that hill was a fun surprise, we got to run on the freeway and go through a long tunnel (the full marathoners got to run across a floating bridge before going through the tunnel). It was so cool and the music was loud and there was suddenly 4 lanes to run in when for the majority of the race I felt like I was constantly weaving in and out of runners. By the end of that tunnel it was HOT but still, it was cool to run in there.
And THEN when I hit mile 11 and this song came on and it gave me the burst of energy that I needed and I realized that I WOULD finish the race without walking.
That's all. I can move on now. Expect a bunch of more posts this week. Some fun some hard to write and some just silly things I want to remember.
2 comments:
You rock! You are such an athlete and I am so jealous. I'm considering a half in January. There is no way I can do anything earlier than that.
Good luck writing your posts this week. I can't wait to read them all. But I'm sure some of it will be rough. Love you!
When Joy Burns told me she was doing the surf city half I was insanely jealous. I mean really, I NEED to run by the beach. It's in February, but on a Sunday.
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