Race report and beyond (Part I)

I am in a bit of a foul mood this afternoon. The reason?? My calves are killing me! I know, I know, stop complaining but I am bummed that I will not be able to race tomorrow as I had planned. I would have been defending champ 4 years in a row. Now I have to watch while someone else claims the title. That is tough for me to swallow.

On to the San Antonio half-marathon recap from Sunday. 4:40 am came all too early but come it did...as it always does. I got up and ate a banana, a mini bagel with peanut butter, and drank 20 oz. of water. A quick shower woke me up and at 5:30 am I was in the lobby to meet up with our group. We headed out with plenty of time, even accounting for traffic. We made it to the start line but then, when looking for the finish line parking (about a mile away), we accidentally got back on the freeway going in the opposite way. Thanks to the wonder that is the iphone (not mine, but there were three in the car) we found our way-through the ghetto-to our destination by 6:13 am.

After a short warm-up run to the start and weaving through total clustered chaos I arrived at my start. But I did not see any other elites or the normal warm up spot for us. When I asked a volunteer where I should be and where I needed to check my bag she told me I needed to go all the way back to corral 10 and drop off my stuff at the appropriate UPS truck which would then take it to the finish. Did I mention there were 30,000 people at this race??? I knew it was wrong but I headed back through the crowd because I did not know what to do and I was running out of time. On the way, I ran into a fellow who looked like he knew what he was doing and asked again. He hurriedly rushed me back up to the front and into a nice warm building and lo-and-behold the rest of the elite group. I should have planned ahead but you know...I had 15 minutes. I checked my stuff to go to the finish line and did a few drills and stretches.

And we were off! 6:00; 5:55; 5:57; 5:56; 6:07 (kind of fell asleep here); 5:48; 5:54; 5:53; Oh no..SHIT stop; 5:57; Oh lord...another one!; 6:02; 5:56; 6:02; 6:39 (last 1.11 miles)..FINISH! Official finish time was 1:18:54-including stops. I was happy yet, really frustrated with having to stop. I have been having stomach issues for a month or more now. I will be totally fine and then NOT. Without the stops I had my time around 1:17:58-one thing I am is a quick crapper. At least I've got that going for me.