Martian Half-Marathon Report

I can officially say that I have run a half-marathon! I am so excited I can hardly stand it! (can you tell by the exclamation points?) Sunday I ran the Martian Half-Marathon and it was great. I totally see why people say that once you run one, you want to do more. In my crazy warped sense of thinking I was already thinking of the next one while I was still running my first one. Crazy, right? So here's the report.

When I first signed up for the race it said that it started at 8:30 am. Awesome I thought. I run in the morning before work, so this is perfect. I don't like those late start races. About a month ago I get an email saying that they've moved the race start up to 8:00 am. Again I thought awesome. I guess I should back track and say that the race was a little ways away from my house. About a 40 minute drive, so you have to factor that into the equation here. Anyway, two weeks ago I get an email that says "Due to unforseen circumstances the race time is being moved up to 7:00 am." Excuse me? 7:00 am and I have to drive 40 minutes to get there? WTF?!? Of course I immediately go into panic mode with how I am supposed to eat something and have enough time for it digest enough before the race. On my daily runs I don't eat anything before because they're not so long that I need something. But for 13.1 miles I need something. Luckily my friend Elena ran a half in the fall and she was my go to person for advice on everything. We got the food situation figured out.

A few days before the race I found out that one of my sister and brother-in-law's friends was also going to do the half. So he and I ended up going to get our race packets together and he rode with us to the race. I told Brian (the friend) Saturday that Mr. Jeep, LC and I would pick him up around 5:30 - 5:45 am on Sunday. He said perfect. My alarm went off at 4:30 am on Sunday (who gets up that early on the weekend) and I ate half a bagel and some yogurt. I also drank water and put a little bit of coffee in my mug to drink on our way there. By the time Mr. Jeep and LC were ready to leave it was 5:30 am when we pulled out of our driveway. So already I'm upset because we're leaving late to pick up Brian. Really there was no need to get upset about it. We pull into Brian's driveway and I get out to go to the front door and Brian opens it and tells me that he didn't hear his alarm and he just got up at 5:30 am! He kept apologizing and finally we were on our way.

Mr. Jeep drove us. Brian and I were telling him how to go since he didn't go on Saturday to pick up the race packet. Well we're riding along and all of a sudden Brian says "I think we missed the exit." And I agreed because I was just about to say the same thing. So we had to get off the expressway and go back. We hadn't gone too far out of our way. So it wasn't that big of a deal. We made sure to razz Mr. Jeep about it though.

Finally we parked and made our way to the starting area. I had to go pee really bad, but when I saw the line for the lovel porta-johns I figured I didn't have enough time. The race was going to start in about 5 minutes. After a minute or so I told Brian I had to use the bathroom. So I got in a line of all men thinking that it would move faster and it did. I came out of the porta-john and Brian said the race had already started. I said, "What?!?" and then realized that we were surrounded by everyone else waiting to start. I had a chip on my shoe so I wasn't that worried. So as we're standing there I go to put my headphones on and start my musice and my damn mp3 player wouldn't turn on. I was getting really frustrated and the start was getting closer. I even took the battery out and put it back in and it still didn't work. So I ran 13.1 miles without any music. I had the headphones on because I had no other place to put them, but no music. I later determined that after I put the new battery in it on Saturday night, LC and I were listening to it and I must have not turned it off all the way. I was so pissed! Live and learn right?

As soon as we hit the start line Brian and I wished each other good luck and he was off. Starting back further, I later determined, was actually a blessing for me. For the first 2-3 miles I was passing a lot of people and it wasn't because I was running incredibly fast, it was due to us starting further back. Usually for me, the first 2 miles are the hardest part for me. But that wasn't the case this time. I think because of the adrenaline of the race and the people it really helped. The course had some hills that I'm not used to by my house. Around me it's pretty flat. I think I did pretty good on the hills though. I seemed to pass a lot of people on the uphills and feel that I kept a pretty even pace.

I didn't take anything at the first water station. I don't think it was until mile 4 that I took some water. Then after that I'd take water at all the stations except for the last one. I was doing pretty good overall until about mile 9 or 10. I started getting a cramp in my left hamstring. As soon as it would start feeling better I'd come to a hill and then it would get worse. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't run, but it hurt. I worked through it and I was fine.

As is the case at most races, there was an interesting mix of people. I spotted one woman that made me laugh and there's usually always one or two at a race. She looked to be in her early 50's and she had her face completely done up. She had mascara, eye shadow, lipstick, blush. You could totally tell that she had got up that morning and washed and dried her hair and curled it. She was done up! Apparently she must follow the line of women don't sweat, they perspire. This other woman every time I saw her all I could think was "Farrah Fawcett is running this race." This woman was straight out of the 70's. She had frosted blond hair with the wings and the harsh rouge lines on her cheeks. And the best part was that her eyes reminded me of Tammy Faye Baker! Ugh, can you even imagine? I also saw an older man, probably in his late 60's wearing a garbage bag (it was not raining, the sun was out) and he had on the Karate Kid headband. Whenever I saw him I thought "Aw, Danielson." This is what kept me entertained.

After about the 6-7 mile mark I ran with pretty much the same group of people the rest of the way. It was kind of nice. Even though nobody was talking to each other, it was comforting knowing that I was with the same people.

When there was about 2 miles left in the race, the route went through U of M Dearborn's campus on this road. It was nice, until the jackass in the car came up behind me and laid on his horn! I have no idea how this guy got his car on the race route or where he came from, but I was with this group of people and I thought I heard a vehicle behind me. I turned to look and sure enough there's a car coming behind me. I heard him honk his horn at some people farther back from me and then next thing I know he's about 2 feet behind me. I am not lying, he was that close. So I moved over and he went past me and made others move, too. He ended up zipping in this parking lot, only to realize there was no way out. So here comes Mr. Jackass back onto the race route. I was the lucky one he came to first. He was even closer to me this time and he laid on his fucking horn! The girl next to me and I turned and looked at him like are you kidding me? We both moved over and then he did the same thing to 2 other women in front of me. The one woman turned around and yelled "What the hell are you doing?" and moved over. Her friend wasn't quite so nice. She gave the car a huge smack on the roof. Eventually the asshole made his way through everyone. I still have no idea where he came from and why he thought he was so important.

I also have to admit that when I had about 2 miles left, I actually started getting choked up. I started thinking about the fact that I was about to finish my first half. All my training had come to this point. Then I reminded myself that Mr. Jeep and Brian would be at the finish line and I'd have to hear about it if I finished with tears in my eyes. There's nothing that irritates me more than being called a girl in those situations.

I was almost to the finish line and there was Mr. Jeep with LC on his shoulders and Brian standing with them. Mr. Jeep was taking pictures and LC was cheering and eating a bagel. I hit the finish line, got a water and was given a medal by some hot looking guy (I almost went back for a second just to have him hand me another medal). Mr. Jeep and LC met me after I got through all that and kept telling me how proud they were. It was awesome! I couldn't stop smiling. And other than my hamstring hurting, I felt great. I wasn't tired. I wasn't out of breath. I felt great. I knew it was still the adrenaline that was making me feel that way, but I didn't care.

Unfortunately, in addition to my technical problems with my radio, we were also experiencing technical problems with the camera. I think because it was cold outside it wasn't working properly. Mr. Jeep couldn't get it to focus. So I think we got one good picture. (this is now making me want to get the better camera I wanted to get when we got this one)

I really didn't start getting tired until a couple hours later, which I expected. That's what happened to me when I would do my long runs on the weekend.

I checked my official time yesterday at it was 2 hours 13 minutes. I think that's pretty respectable for my first half. Now I have something to beat. I'm really glad I did it and I can't wait for the next one!