So, it has only taken me a month but I have to let everyone know how my race went! I was inspired to blog again by some really cute blogs I was introduced to this morning (more about that later). I went to Nashville with my parents, aunt Barbara, and my mom's college roomate and her husband, along with the rest of my team at the end of April. The Country Music Marathon was April 24 so we went a few days early and luckily I got to stay a few days after for a nice vacation too!
My Mom's best friend Cindy and her husband Mike w/ me after the race.
I'm sure you are all aware of what's been going on in Nashville with the terrible flooding and now recovery efforts so I feel silly having felt frustrated by the weather conditions on my race day. Straight to the point, I trained for 6 months to complete the full 26.2 mile race and on race day was diverted to only complete the half marathon (13.1 miles) because of lightening, high winds and threats of tornadoes! Nashville has really taken a beating as this weather only got 1000x worse a week later. Obviously, I had mixed emotions because I had trained for so long and was unable to finish; but, at the same time I was glad to not have to run in the constantly deteriorating weather. I was also very relieved that I got diverted BEFORE I got to the half-way point. It was a blessing to run at my slower pace because some of my fast teammates passed the half mark and were eventually pulled off at mile 19+! I would have been devistated if I had gotten to mile 23 and had to stop running, which was the case for 4 of my teammates. None of us were able to complete the full race as only the elite runners who finished in near 3 hours finished. I finished the half with pride though and was glad to have worked so hard to get even there! I was saving up my energy for the full 26 so 13 was nothing! Haha, or so I thought, until I decided not to take an ice bath or do anything I normally do to recover and I was so sore the next day I literally had to go down stairs BACKWARDS! How embarrassing!
My family and friends were so AWESOME! They cheered for me the whole time and even made shirts and signs with my face on them!
My fan club!
I also had my name across my race singlet so strangers were cheering for me by name the whole race too!
Gross and sweaty but done!
If you've never experienced this it is truly priceless and beyond encouraging to have support from the sidelines. I understand why people do multiple races because of the motivation that comes from all the spectators!
SO, I still have it in my head to complete a full marathon and would like to get it overwith this year, so I have decided I want to run the San Antonio Rock n' Roll marathon in November! I will have to start training soon through the heat of the summer which will not be fun but I really want to check this one off my non-existent bucket list! Anyone interested in joining?! I have to find a group to train with because it is literally not in my realm to run more than 10 miles alone and without support!
My family and our friends had an awesome vacation in Nashville and got to see so many beautiful parks (and had several picnics with our Farmer's Market finds), historical and gorgeous mansions and plantations, heard cool music, ate (A LOT) of really awesome food and overall just had a lovely relaxing few days in a really cool city. Breakfast sports were a favorite of mine on this trip and I am not really a huge breakfast person. We ate at the Lovelss Cafe which was so wonderful despite the recent passing of Carol Fay, 'the Biscuit Lady':(. The biscuits were still phenomenol. We also went to the Pancake Pantry and waited in what we heard was a really 'short' line for about 30 minutes. Delicious. It was a good thing that I had run 13 miles the day before because I definitely took down some grub.
At the Loveless Cafe. Notice the memorial banner to the 'Biscuit Lady.'
We went and saw the Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's plantation. Really cool. I got to see the Grand Ole Opry and museum before it flooded which is a gigantic masterpiece with beautiful landscaping. We also went to a great street festival in the most quaint town, Franklin, Tennessee and took a drive down the Natchez Trace. Everything was so beautiful and green we spent a lot of time just driving looking at beautiful landscapes and homes. Finally, the last favorite spot was Kix Brook's of (Brooks and Dunn) Vineyard, Arrington Vineyard. We took a picnic and bought a couple bottles and just took in the beautiful views.
Overall, Team and Training and Nashville were an awesome expereince and I am proud to have stuck with it and finished fundraising almost $4000.00 and training for such a great event! I would recommend that if you're thinking about doing it, just go for it. It's hard but worth it!
Thanks for all the support throughout!
0 comments:
Post a Comment