Oakland Half Marathon Recap

I felt pretty good waking up this morning.  I went to the chiropractor on Friday (the day after I was rear ended) and the adjustment helped my pain level immensely.  I rested on Saturday so I thought I would be good to go.  I didn't think it would be a fast race for me but I definitely felt confident that I could do it.  I ate my usual breakfast of a packet of oatmeal around 7am before we left the house.  We got to the starting line early.  I met up with my students who were also running and chatted with them.  I should have brought along a snack to eat.  I wasn't thinking that the race starts at 9:15 whereas I usually begin my longer runs an hour earlier.  As we queued up to run my stomach growled.  Little did I know that that would be the least of my worries.

I started off running with my friend.  We had talked about how we'd run together the first 4-5 miles and then I'd break away to try and increase my speed.  I typically run 1-2 minutes faster than she does normally.  After the first mile my back started hurting - like really hurting.  Every time my feet touched the ground I felt this spasm of pain right in the middle of my lower back.  I wanted to quit.  I didn't think I could finish.  I managed to run the first three miles around 11:20 miles which isn't too much slower than my normal pace.  Mile four was a bit downhill so my time was around 10:34. 

I told my friend to go ahead not long after this.  I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up this pace much longer.  I was in so much pain.  I really wanted to quit but there weren't a lot of medic tents around so I didn't even know how I'd get back to the starting line.  Plus I really didn't want a DNF after my name on my first race ever.  Around mile 5 I saw my school's water station.  It boosted my spirits to see some of my students and coworkers there.  It gave me energy to keep going a bit more. 

Miles 5-10 were slower.  I was slowly going from 12 minute miles to close to 13 minute miles.  Unfortunately this coincided with a not as scenic part of the course.  I was happy that the half marathon route merged with the marathon route because there were more people around me and I didn't feel like I was in the back of the pack.  Mentally this helped me a lot since I was feeling so slow and dejected. 

I ran into one of my students who was running around mile 8.  We ran together for awhile.  I ended up passing her after a little while.  Each step was more painful.  I wanted to cry.  I would walk through the water stations and it hurt just as much to walk so instead I kept running even if I was barely shuffling my feet at this point. 

We hit the lake around mile 10 where I ran into another one of my students at a water station there.  His smile cheered me up and I told myself that the last bit was around the lake - the same lake I have run so many times now.  These last few miles ranged from 13-14 minutes each.  They were so painfully slow.  I wanted to die.  I wanted to be over.  But I knew if I had run this far I could finish. 

When I made the last turn around the lake and saw the finish line ahead I sped up.  I knew I was almost done.  I saw some of my students cheering for me which boosted my spirits.  I also saw M right in front of the finish line cheering for me.  I almost cried seeing him and realizing that this was all over. 

My final time was 2:43.  I was hoping to break 2:30 but 13 minutes over isn't bad considering how painful it was for me.  I saw my good friend Laura after I finished. 
 
The first thing I asked her was, " You people do this for fun?"  I couldn't fathom why anyone would put themselves through such torture!  I'm hoping my opinion of racing changes because I have another one lined up for June!