Come and Gone

The marathon relay has come and gone.  The weekend was incredibly fun and I'm really looking forward to doing it again next year.  The night before the relay, Julie, Christy, Alicia and I enjoyed a relaxing dinner and then some shopping.  We all bought new swimsuits so we could take advantage of the hot tub at the hotel.  We didn't plan to stay the whole weekend so we weren't prepared for this opportunity. (Note, buying a swimsuit and wearing it immediately is normally against my personal hygiene rules, but a few of those were broken in that spur of the moment decision to stay.)  Of our four, I cared the most about my time.  Prior to race day I was able to knock out 2 miles in 16:52.  Still my fastest 2 mile run.  The bets were 63, 65, 66 and 67 minutes for my 6.9 leg (YES! I did one of the longest!).

I ended up finishing my portion in 1:07:13.  Julie was the winner of the bet and was the only one who did not have to take a shot that night, but we all attempted (and failed) to take down 2 jumbo margaritas between the 4 of us.  Prior to the race I was starting to consider running a half marathon.  During the race I thought, "Why would I EVER want to run that far?"  Now I'm back to thinking I could probably do a half.  Running was a complete blast because the residents of Champaign get pretty involved and are very supportive.  They make signs that say "Your feet hurt because you're kicking so much butt" and a little girl's "Why doesn't this parade have candy?"  In addition to their cheers being really motivational, people being along the whole route was great because I have a firm rule about not walking when spectators can see you.  The only exception is during water stops.  I tried to run through my first water stop and got more water in my eye than in my mouth.  So I walked through those to hydrate and then get right back to running.

My leg finished at 13.6 miles.  It was nice to see the mile markers and think "only 4.6/2.6/.6!"  Unfortunately the exchange zone was hard to see and I was on it before I knew what was happening.  I saw Julie and sprinted until I found Christy to give her our belt.  As soon as I completed the hand off I burst into tears.  Julie and Alicia were fairly shocked at this, but I was just so happy to have accomplished that goal....and to be done running for the day!

Here we all are at the starting line waiting for Alicia to start.

And on the U of I football field with our medals.  We had an overall time of 4:35:and some change (I forgot the seconds).