Never say never!

We just returned from our weekend in Tulsa-had a great time visiting family, and esp. seeing our son who attends TU.

The Tulsa Run--although it was a beautiful day, it wasn't pretty for me and my run.

Friday evening I started feeling puny-headache and a little sore throat--ugh. I quadrupled my Vit. D3, but didn't have Emergen-C or Zinc with me. The D must have helped b/c I felt pretty good when I woke up at 6 AM on Saturday. I ate a bagel from Panera-toasted with butter and some hot tea about 6:30.

DH dropped me off near the start about 8:30. It was cold and windy-about 40 degrees. I promptly got in line at the port-a-potty. I waited in line, anxiously, I'll admit, for 25 minutes. Once that task was checked off, I felt excited and ready to go!

There were throngs of runners at the start and I didn't see my brother, but I figured I'd find him as we ran. The anthem was sung, the starting gun went off with a loud crack, and away we went. I knew within the first mile that I had too many clothes on--BIG mistake. I was wearing a long sleeve T, shorts with running tights, and ear-band and gloves.

Almost immediately I pushed up my sleeves. Ditched my gloves after a few miles. Pulled off the ear-band a mile later. But couldn't do a thing about the tights, without losing a lot of time. So I kept running.

I felt strong and good the first 4-5 miles. But as the race progressed, I got hotter and hotter, and even pouring cold water down my back didn't help much. The scenery was beautiful, but there were at least 3 hills-the first two were not a problem, but the last one--going up Denver, right at the end of the race, was a (seemingly never-ending) killer.

Anyway, by about mile 5 or 6, I was not feeling good. I was baking and steaming in my running tights; the bottoms of my feet were burning. My calves were cramping and my legs felt like lead. My left foot hurt b/c my shoelace was too tight. I was very thirsty and nauseated. Too weak to fix my lace, too weak to open another "Gu"; I just wanted to quit. I think I "hit the wall"--have never had that experience before.

Something inside would not let me stop. I walked-more than I wanted to and even walking was hard-but I didn't give up. Once I reached the top of Denver Ave., I began to run again, with a little more energy. The end was in sight.

I kept running. I crossed the finish line, with a burst of manufactured-from-within energy.

Feeling weak and emotional, I wanted to burst into tears from exhaustion and frustration. I wanted to collapse on the ground. I didn't.

My family-DH, 2 sons, my mother, 2 brothers, 2 sisters-in-laws, 2 nieces, gathered around and congratulated and loved on me. What a blessing and encouragement that was. A dear friend called to check on me--I told her this was it--NO MORE RACES FOR ME--NEVER AGAIN--ESPECIALLY THE TULSA RUN! Bleah. I felt so discouraged and disappointed.


So, today is Sunday and I keep thinking how I could do better next year and how I hate to have what was to be my "final hurrah" of running end like this. And now I'm wondering if maybe I will run next year's race, afterall.

What a difference 24 hours makes. :-)

Lessons learned:
1. Wear fewer clothes-better to be cold than hot.
2. Do much more training on hills.
3. Make sure shoe laces aren't too tight.
4. Don't start out too fast.

Oh, and BTW, my chip time was 1:36. 10:20 per mile. Top 1/3 of my age group. I had really wanted to do better than that. But, I am very thankful I even finished the race. I came so close to quitting at the end.

Training really does build perseverance, resilience, and character. In running races and living life.

Grace and peace~