Last year, my brother talked me into running my first half marathon, the Scout Strong Challenge, in Kansas City. My friend, Shane, and I were already planning to do the Disney Princess half marathon in February 2015, so we decided doing one in September 2014 would be a good trial. That race went well, as did the Disney Princess Half. From then on, Shane & I dubbed each other running partners for life. We have known each other for almost 20 years (that seriously feels so bizarre to say it; I didn't realize it's been that long!) but always played different positions in sports and excelled in different areas. How funny that after college we decided to do long distance running races together. I use the word together very loosely, as she is a fast little thing and smokes me in every run. After running Disney, Shane texted me a few weeks later and asked if I'd be interested in doing a half marathon with her in Omaha in the fall. I was then in the middle of training for the Divas half marathon, which I completed in April in Galveston. Of course I agreed to the Nebraska half marathon; I have always loved the city of Omaha and was thrilled that maybe I'd get to race in cooler weather! Truth be told, Omaha is probably my favorite midwest city. If it weren't for the brutal winters, I might live there.
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| Downtown Omaha + Trees Changing Colors = BEAUTIFUL |
We officially began training for the Nebraska half marathon 10 weeks prior to the race. For those of you who haven't trained for a long distance race, I'll just be honest and say, training really sucks sometimes, especially the longer you do it. You know you have to prepare, but the long distance miles early in the morning or in the evening after a long day at work can get really tedious and challenging, especially in the 100 degree days of summer. On top of those challenges, I had a year-old foot injury to contend with. What started as plantar fasciitis has turned into what I think may be a bone spur on my right heel, something I use millions of times each run. This greatly limited my speed, training run distances, and even some days my motivation. I tried to press on as much as I could, but going into the race I felt the least prepared physically and mentally as I have any race I've ever run.
I flew to Omaha Friday night and Shane picked me up at the airport. I so love our friendship, because to me, it's one of those unique relationships where you might not talk or see each other for awhile, but when you see each other it's like you haven't been apart. I consider myself blessed to have a friendship like this, as I know they are uncommon.
From the airport, we went to her new house and watched the Royals on TV (GO ROYALS) and caught up on life. On Saturday we were able to sleep in, since we didn't have to get in a long run, and began carb-loading with pancakes for breakfast. We then went downtown Omaha and got tea from a local coffee shop, and drove the half marathon race course. Driving the course was nerve-wracking, but nice to see where we'd be running! Afterward, we went to a pottery-painting studio called Creation Station. Here, we got to select pieces of pottery and painted them how we wanted. I chose the cutest "snuggle mug" and painted it KU crimson & blue. Rock Chalk Jayhawk! It was so much fun to pretend to be an artist, and I can't wait to see the finished creation (it won't be ready for a week, so I'll be having mine mailed to me).
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| I'm not artistic at all, but I love how my mug looks! |
After unleashing our inner artist, Shane & I went to an outdoor shopping center and did more carb-loading. We had some truly yummy spaghetti with sausage & marinara, along with delicious bread. Then we went and walked through an enormous sporting goods store, where we picked up hand warmers and energy supplements for the race. Then it was time to go home, prop our race legs up, and get to bed early.
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| Ran by this gem around mile 4 |
Sunday morning, my alarm went off at 5:15 (I seriously get up earlier on the weekends than during the week) and I got dressed and ready to run. I didn't hear Shane getting ready and we were supposed to leave at 5:40, so I called her at 5:38 to make sure she was up and around. Lo and behold, she was still in bed. She gathered all her things and got ready in about 4 minutes and we climbed in with our ride and headed to the race!
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| About 3 miles of the race was actually in Iowa; you could say we ran from Nebraska to Iowa! |
Race time temperature was 46 degrees, which is not something I've felt in north Texas since probably March. It felt AMAZING! I wore a tank top and was getting lots of funny looks from people, but didn't care because I was determined to soak up all the fall weather I could.
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| Running buddies pre-race in the dark |
The race began at about 7:04 a.m., and it was dark for the first few miles of the race. The race course overall was actually one of my more favorite courses I've run. There were incredible views of downtown with the sunrise behind it, running through Creighton's pretty campus, and running by TD Ameritrade park, home of the College World Series. The course also took us through several areas where I was exposed to actual fall foliage and trees changing colors! While the course was incredible to run through, my feet were not feeling so incredible. Around mile 6, my left leg started to fall asleep, which is an issue I've had for awhile and can't figure out. I pushed through as much as I could, until I was forced to walk and wake the foot back up. This cycle repeated a few times during the race, but I finished. Shane also did well and set a PR! My goal was to finish, which I did, but it was the slowest half marathon I've ever run. I tried to give myself grace during and after the race, but at the end I just lost it and started crying from the pain and disappointment. I've never cried after a race.
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| Sweet medal! The shirts were awesome too! |
In the end, I'm so happy I did this race, and I think at some point in the future I may repeat it. For now, I've decided to take some significant time off of long distance running to allow my body to heal. I have tried to "man up" and just deal with aches and pains, but the longer it goes on, the more it affects my overall health and that's just not ok at the age of 25. I will take a few months off, get stronger, figure out my foot injury situation, then in March plan to get back in the swing of things. The thing about runners is, we hate it when we're in pain, but the second we cross the finish line we're ready to plan the next event. That's just what Shane & I have done, and we plan to run our next race together next June at the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll half marathon. :)
PS Look for 5K updates & updates on other life events in the blog in the near future; I said I'm taking a break from long distance, not running altogether ;)
PPS Have you been to Omaha? If not, please go. You'll love it.
Twitter: @jen_being_jen
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