ANYWAYS, that's old news, the really exciting stuff I want to talk about happened this weekend!! I drove down to KY this weekend for a race. It was the first time I traveled for a race. Originally, my plan was for my younger sister to come with me & to stay with my older sister, but those plans changed due to flooding in the area & my younger sister's sewer backing up into her basement...yada yada yada, I ended up driving down alone! It was a 5 hour drive & it was lonely. I drove straight to the expo in Louisville, which was pretty fun, but again, lonely doing it alone!! Everyone else had someone to talk to & by that time, I had driven 4 hours & just wanted to go to my older sister's house, which was still an hour away. I did pick up a cute running t-shirt along with my race packet, so that made me feel better LOL I got lost trying to leave Louisville & then I got lost driving to my sister's house (Google maps does NOT know the quickest way to get there!!), so my BIL offered to drive me to the race on Saturday morning. I GLADLY took him up on his offer, so that I wouldn't have to spend the morning alone, AND he knows his way around the Louisville area, so at least I wouldn't be late to the race or driving around trying to leave Louisville after the race.
We woke up at 5 AM (but it felt like 4 AM Chicago time!) and I got all of my race stuff together, but my packet didn't have any pins in it for my bib. My BIL couldn't find any around the house...so I just hoped that there would be some at the race. We drove and talked for the hour it took to get to Louisville & then as we got closer to the race, he let me jump out while he parked. My plan was to go to gear check & then use the bathroom before it was time to race. I couldn't find the freaking gear check & I wandered around the Start along with many other people looking for the gear check. Finally, someone knew where it was, so I dropped by stuff off & picked up some pins for my bib! YAY!! However, there was a sea of people between me & the potties, so there was no way to go to the bathroom before the race! NOT COOL!
The race started & I was feeling good! I LOVED racing in a new city, looking at all of the sites & taking it all in. The people of Louisville were out, we never went long without coming across someone or a group of people cheering us on. It was really awesome. I held myself back through mile 5, I didn't want to go out too quickly & burn out towards the end. I felt good the whole time & was enjoying the race so much that I forgot we got to run into Churchill Downs!! When I saw that we were coming up to Churchill Downs at mile 8, I was SO excited. We didn't run on the track that the horses race on, we ran in the middle of the track, but we DID get to see some horses running, it looked like they were training, but it was SO exciting to be near the track of the Kentucky Derby AND to see the horses there too! :) I loved it.
This is where my race goes downhill. At mile 9, the marathoners & half-marathoners split up. Up to that point, we were all running together. The Half-marathoners were going to loop back up near the Start to go to the Finish line. The marathoners, however, were going to run another 3-4 miles AWAY from the Finish line, before heading back up to complete their 26.2 miles. Unfortunately, I ended up following the people in front of me, not really paying attention to where I was supposed to go & I ended up on the marathon course. I was still feeling awesome, I was even starting to ramp up my speed at mile 10, thinking that the finish was only 3.1 miles away! Looking back, I did wonder why there wasn't that many people along the route, cheering us on at mile 10, since we were getting close to the Finish line (or so I thought). Finally, we came upon Iroquois Park, which I KNEW was part of the marathon course & where there was a BIG HILL!! This was where I realize that I was NOT going the right way :( I continued through mile 11 and then I asked a runner next to me what race he was doing. He told me that we were doing the marathon!!! LOL
I stopped running to tell one of the police officers along the route that I was not supposed to be running the marathon, I had signed up for the half!! He told me that there was no way to get to the Finish line, but to keep going b/c I was half-way done! UMMM...he is obviously NOT a runner, training for a half-marathon is NOT at all like training for a full marathon!! I wasn't ready to make the 13 mile run back to the Finish line :( I kept going though, thinking that since I knew I wasn't close to the finish line, I could at least go to the bathroom & started looking for porta-potties along the route. No such luck :( I reached mile 13 & didn't know what to do!! I went a little further & there was another police man, along with a few cheering people & an ambulance! I figured they might take me away in the ambulance if I told them my situation. AGAIN, the police officer said that there was nothing he could do and that I should just finish the full marathon. UGH!!
One of the ladies who was there cheering for her husband over heard me talking to the police officer & told me she was heading to the finish line, once her husband ran by. FINALLY!! I only had to wait about a minute or two, he stopped by, she gave him a bar of some sort, he hugged his kids & then he was on his way. So we went back to her car, along with her 3 kids & we start to head to the finish line. Unfortunately, it was hard to find it since most of the streets were shut down due to the race. It was nice to talk to her, she had twin boys who were 10 & a little 5 yr old girl. So we chatted about twins & the difference between boys & girls. She was really sweet!! Our drive to the finish line took about an hour! My poor BIL was waiting for me to meet him at the runners' reunite meeting area. I told him that I would be done in an hour, but now it had been 3 hours!! I didn't have a phone on me, so there as no way I could let him know what had happened! :( I felt SO BAD for him!! When we got close to the finish line, I thanked the nice lady & ran off to try to get back into the race.
The first police officer I talked to told me that once I was off the course, I couldn't get back on :( I REALLY wanted to run through the finish line and get my metal at that point. I was SO upset about the way the race went. There was another man who I talked to, who went & talked to a few other people & they waved me into the race. I was FINALLY able to run through the finish line, with my official time being 2:49!! GAH!! A whole hour longer than my 13.1 run :( BUT I did get my metal & my BIL was right where we agreed to meet, so we could finally head back to my sister's house.
Thankfully I had my Garmin on & I was able to see that I definitely made my goal of finishing 13.1 miles in less than 2 hours, but it wasn't official :( I went from enjoying the race & loving every second of it, to my world crashing down as I realized I wouldn't finish at 13.1 miles & might possibly have to run a FULL Marathon!! CRAZY!!! I am finally at peace with how things went, but I really had to process my emotions about it. I was mostly disappointed with myself for not realizing sooner that I was on the marathon course. I hated the way I felt at the finish & wished I could have run triumphantly through the finish line under 2 hours. I am SO upset that it didn't happen that way, but I am also proud of myself for reaching my goal. It's a bittersweet feeling though. I am now on the lookout for another half-marathon to crush!!
Me with my medal after the race!
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