Ready to Run!

Yesterday morning started at home, the alarm went off at 3:00 am, we got our race clothes on (our coordinating shirts which we had laid out so neatly next to each other the night before), grabbed our iPods fully loaded with our running mix, chugged some lemon lime Gatorade, and headed out the door to meet the rest of our crew for our drive to Louisville.
About 4:30 am and a quarter of the way there, "low tire pressure" appeared on the gauges on Jenny's explorer and we heard a weird noise so we pulled over to see a completely flat right back tire. Luckily Grant and Al were there as our pit crew, and Kenny the truck driver came to the rescue with a crowbar to pry the wheel off the car that was stuck in place.
We were hoping the rest of the day would not follow our misfortune of the morning, and it didn't. We made it in Louisville in time to pick up our race packets, catch the shuttle to the start line, pee in the bushes (I've never seen so many people squatting in one place), and start the race.

Jenny, Kristen, Karrie, me and Grant waiting to catch the shuttle to the start.

Starting in January, Karrie, Jenny, and I have been training together, almost everyday together at Fitness 19 (where we have become pseudo celebrities). It took a little while to talk them into wanting to do the race but once they were on board, they were as excited as I was. It was a great experience to have people to train with, keeps motivation high and working out fun.

I'm looking pretty excited at the start line. I'm sure I wasn't so cheery after a few miles but the excitement of running with 12,000 other people was pretty fun. The beginning was a fight to get ahead, weaving in and out of people while trying to stay with Grant at the same time. We finally made it through the masses. The entire race was pretty crowded but nothing like the first mile.Grant carried the camera the entire race so I had to post one "action" shot so it wasn't in vain. The first 6 miles were through a cool park, lots of hills but they weren't too bad and was nice and shaded. We did it! Around mile 7 I wasn't feeling it and knew Grant could go faster so I had him take off and reach our goal of finishing under 2 hours, and he did it! Good work Grant. I wasn't feeling at the top of my game but I did beat my previous half marathon time by over 10 minutes so I feel really good about that. We got our medals (which you could have engraved for $10 at the end of the race), but I "inherited" an engraver from Joan when I was in San Diego last week and engraved our medals with our time, name and finishing place. Worked pretty well. Karrie and Jenny, bring them over if you want some custom engraving :)Karrie and me at the finish line! We did it!!!

HCH- our training group! We all finished in great time and everyone is still alive and well.The whole group. Al didn't register because he wasn't sure about his work schedule but he got someone to cover for him so he could come with us, and instead of sit at the finish line for over 2 hours, he decided to go for a "little" run, snuck onto a shuttle, and ran the entire thing with us!

Our shoes with our timing chips and the medal in the middle. Derby miniMarathon 2009!

The full marathoners are running on the bridge behind us, still going as we're getting in the car and heading home. Good for them. Maybe one day, but then again, maybe not. We'll see how I feel about that at a later date. Grant described it well when he said, "It's like having a baby. You don't ask someone if they want to do a marathon minutes after they have just run 13 miles, in the same way that you don't ask a mother how many more kids she wants immediately after giving birth." I'm feeling good enough today that I'm excited about the next half that I will run, but still not sure about doing a full.
Overall it was a great day. We've been anticipating it for months now, crazy that it's all over, but it was a gorgeous day (80+ degrees) and so much fun.