OKC Half Marathon

Sheesh, I've had this post in my Blogger queue for almost a month now, just haven't taken the time to sit down and type. This may get lengthy, so if you're not interested in the "experience," just skim through the pictures. :)

 

Shortly after I had Hayden, some friends & I decided to start running. It started out as just a little cheap mommy therapy. We'd tuck our kids into bed, and head out around 9pm several nights a week for some light jogs around our neighborhood. Over the next weeks, we set our sights on the Frosty 5K. At that point we were pumped to be tackling 3ish miles every run. With a few 5Ks under our belt, we started discussing something bigger. I knew that Oklahoma City had a huge marathon around the anniversary of the bombing every year. After many pep talks and months of that mommy therapy, we convinced ourselves to give it a whirl...if nothing else, it would be a fun couples weekend away!

 

I don't know how many hours/miles we spent training. Mostly it was cold weather training, which I never thought I'd like, but after running in the heat this summer, I think I prefer the cold. We didn't always train together, but the majority of the time it was the three of us solving the world's problems, venting, gasping for air, complaining of our aches and pains and just being together. We were friends before we started, but there's something about sweating your @$$ off with the same girls for 6 months straight that really strengthens that bond.

 

Tiff's mom, Sherri, made all of us race t-shirts that said "We're only HALF crazy" on the front, and "Your body will go anywhere your mind takes it" on the back. She also surprised us with fan t-shirts for our kiddos that said, "My mom is half crazy." Super cute and the kids were pumped.

Fast forward (or rewind since I'm about 4 months late with this post) to April 27, and we're headed to OKC with our hubbies. We checked in to get our bib #s and race packets and the chills just ran down my spine...people everywhere and this is really happening.

After taking care of those details, we headed to take care of some more business...some awesome Mexican food and margaritas. We like to refer to it as carb loading. Nice pinky, Chris.

We stuffed ourselves and the margaritas did an effective job of relieving our anxieties.

 That evening we headed out to check out something new for all of us--horse races! OKC has a place with both horse races and a casino...a perfect way to spend an evening out with friends! The men took this stuff very seriously (I'm pretty sure the quote was "Now, I'm not gonna be much for conversation tonight"), and we just enjoyed the show. Us girls even took a break and tried our hands at the slot machines for awhile. We can milk $20 for quite awhile!

But we couldn't party too late, because the race started at 6:30am the next morning. After a very short, sleepless night for all of us, we went to meet the shuttle bus before 5am the next morning. Bright eyed and bushy tailed!

We were quite the colorful crew...red socks in honor of the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing that happened just 12 days prior to our race, and green laces in honor of the OKC bombing victims.

By the time we finally got on the bus (due to overcrowding, we didn't make it on the first shuttle), I looked down at my watch and saw this...

PLENTY of time, right? It was about a 10 minute bus ride and the race didn't start until 6:30. Wrong. You see, three nervous girls about to embark on a 13.1 mile race which would last over 2 hours...we needed to pee. Or at least, we didn't want to have to pee during the race, so we headed straight for the porta-potties. I really wish I would have taken a picture of that...(the environment, not the peeing part). They probably had 15-20 porta-potties set up and this HUGE mass of people waiting to use them. The line was probably 20 people deep for each one. This is the point in which we started stressing a bit. It will move quickly, right? Wrong again. We probably entered the porta-potty line around 5:55am and we were sprinting away from the porta-potties to get in the race starting line at 6:28am. They played the national anthem and then held 171 seconds of silence (one for each of the 168 OKC bombing victims and 3 for the Boston victims). This was supposed to be such a moving, reverant moment, however it's just not quite the same when you're standing in line to use a toilet. Oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do.

So we did our business and sprinted to the starting line...25,000 people deep. No exaggeration. And that's just the number of runners, not to mention the masses that had gathered to cheer the participants on. We had trouble even finding a place to get on the street it was SO CROWDED.

Waiting, waiting and more waiting.

Finally, several minutes after the starting gun went off, we started moving (we were probably 1/4-1/2 mile back from the official starting line).

Our awesome husbands had planned to try to wait near the starting line to take pictures for us, but in this huge mass of people, we weren't so optimistic about seeing them. But just before we crossed the starting line, I happened to catch a glimpse of them and we started waving and yelling...the rest of these pictures were taken by our men.

Among the group were these fully uniformed fire fighters...they completed the entire course in full bunker gear. Others carried full size American flags the whole course. Amazing.

Some scenes from the Memorial site.

The Survivor Tree.

So the gun went off at 6:30am, we finally crossed the starting line at 6:47am. The first few miles, was basically just trying not to fall on your face, tripping over the swarms of people. Once the packs started to thin out, you could finally find your pace. I remember right around mile one, we came upon this hill where you couldn't even see over the other side--very steep--at mile ONE!! Crap, we didn't train too much for hills, this was supposed to be a pretty flat course!

Our guys hustled to look for us around the 6 mile mark. It was such a refreshing site to see supportive, familiar faces cheering you on!

 

 
The day before the race, we heard about a portion of the course called Gorilla Hill. It was somewhere around mile 7, and the residents of this neighborhood all dress up as bananas and gorillas, and it's one of the most inspiring points of the race, as there are tons of people cheering you on and lots to look at to take your mind off the pain of the HILL part of Gorilla Hill. I tried like heck to get my cell phone out and snap a picture of the craziness as I approached Gorilla Hill, but my fingers were so sweaty that I couldn't unlock the screen on my phone! Ugh.

So as with my previous half marathon, all was well until I was approaching mile 10. They had live music at random points, cheerleading squads, jello-shot stands set up, Absolut Vodka was giving out samples on the course...so much fun! Although, I can imagine throwing back a shot of vodka during a race like this...gag.

Then things started to suck. I did end up walking a couple times, but I timed myself and didn't walk for more than a minute each time. I knew by watching my mile splits that I was going to end up slightly faster than my first half, but I couldn't afford to slack too much. I am not a fast runner, and really don't care to be, but I do set little goals for myself to try an improve each time.

The guys made it back to the finish line to catch us all coming through the finish line chute. Jami first...

Here I come with my official time of 2:27...don't let my smile fool you, I'm pretty sure I was near death.

 

And here's Tiff! There was a guy on a loudspeaker announcing random names that were approaching the finish line (our bibs had timing chips in them, so they could see who was coming in), and although I didn't actually see Tiff cross, I did hear them say her name loud & clear!! So awesome!

So running 13.1 (freaking) miles was really hard, but weaving through the crowds and jerky security guards may have been an even bigger chore! We finally found our husbands and each other, and we exchanged experiences, leaned on each other, sucked down the water, and just basked in the glory of FINISHING! And it was only like 9:30am!

When I ran my first half three years ago, I didn't have anyone in the crowd cheering me on...Chris was at football and my parents kept the boys. Wow, what a difference it makes to have a support system to find throughout the race. Big thanks to our awesome husbands. They may been inspired enough to join us in the race next year...we'll see!

And also, a big thanks to the grandparents that kept our kiddos while we were away...you were all a big part of our success! Such an incredible experience, and I'm so thankful for Tiff & Jami taking this adventure with me...it won't be our last! :)