The HOTTEST Half!

Honestly, the name should have given it away. But, for me and Emily we were brave and still signed up to run a half marathon on August 15th, 2010 in the Texas heat. I have to say, I really didn't think much of it since we have been training all summer in the heat, but we had been running before the sun comes up. BIG difference. I am getting ahead of myself, so I will start at the beginning...

The alarm went off at 5:00am. Wasn't too hard to get out of bed. I had butterflies in my stomach and I wanted to get up, take care of buisness, and have time to eat something. When all of the above was done Bryan and I headed to Dallas. We arrived at the lake where the race was about 45 minutes before the race started. Plenty of time to soak everything in, have one more quick bathroom stop, and get warmed up.





Check out the lines for the port-o-potties. Can you say disgusting. I totally did not want to use one, but I had too. I did not want to be stuck 7 miles out and have to use the bathroom. Moving on...



Right before heading to the start line! Excited!



So the race begins. The gun is fired and we look like a bunch of cattle all being hurded on a sidewalk. There were probably a little less than a 1000 runners. Of course everyone is excited and start off full blast. Emily and I ran pretty fast for our pace, for the first 3 miles. BAD mistake. Lesson learned #1 - pace yourself, pace yourself, pace yourself. Otherwise you can use all your glycogen in your muscles and hit a wall. :( So we were off, needless to say I couldn't hang with Emily. She was feeling and doing great so I told her to go ahead and I would be behind her. I was already tired and out of breath. I knew this was going to make for a long race.

Anyways, I kept going. Making sure that I was stopping at every hydration station along the way to get some water or gatorade. After I reached the halfway point I was feeling pretty tired, HOT, and thinking "would it just be faster if I just ditched the race and kept going around the lake" "would it be faster than having to go back the way I came" "do you think one of these passing cars will just take me back to the start line?"



I had a few hiccups along on the way back. I was so thirsty I was drinking too much water at the stations and threw up 2 times on the way back to the finish. I reached Bryan with 3 miles left and I was ready to throw in the towel. I asked Bryan to just take me to the car. I was soo tired, hot, sick, and upset with myself that I wasn't doing the best that I knew I could do, time wise. It was also about this point where my new shirt had begun to rub my entire underarm raw. So I was having to walk with my hand on my side. Lovely, just lovely. Lesson Learned #2 - don't ever wear new clothes, shoes, socks ect for a race. Try things out in advance. I also, for the first time, changed out sports electrolytes that I use. I used Honey Sytingers for the first time versus my usual Sports beans. Needless to say, Bryan encouraged me to finish, I had already gone too far to quit now. Sidenote: I had already seen 3 people taken by ambulance off of the route. That should have been my first sign that this was not very smart to sign up for a half marathon in August.

Finished!!!! Emily was awesome! She had a great run despite the heat. She did great. Check her out finishing strong.



Finished!!!! This picture is me about 2 minutues after I finished. Not feeling so hot.



Trying to be as still as possible and cool off.



So basically, I felt terrible. My stomach was hurting so bad, I was sweting like crazy and I was so hot. I knew this wasn't going to end well. I told Bryan it might be a good idea for me to go and sit in the car in the AC. Well, I made it about 10 feet and just fell on the ground and puked my guts up. :( Bryan went and got me a medic and he came to the rescue. I ended up having to get an IV right there since I couldn't keep any fluids down and while sitting there getting the magic juice the Medic and Bryan poured cold water on my head and feet. After getting fluids through IV, I was feeling slightly better. After resting and getting some fluids and food once home I began to feel much better as the day progressed.

I like how my IV is just sitting on my shoulder! ha.





My Medic



All in all it was a good experience. I finished the half marathon in 3 hours and 9 mintues. That is something to be proud of. I am have worked really hard to get to the point. I am looking forward to doing another one this fall once the weather cools off some. I will take all of my lessons learned, and come prepared for my next race.