I FINISHED!!!!!

I can't believe it, but I did it!! I crossed the finish line of my first Half Marathon!!! 13.1 miles...

The day before the race I stayed home, drank plenty of water and... well, ran around on my feet too much :( oops. They tell you not too and it's not like I was walking out of town guests all around SF or anything obvious. I was alone all day and ran an errand, walked to the grocery store on the way back... decided to clean, cook food for later and do a tiny bit of laundry. = on my feet ALL DAY. oops. My bad foot started to hurt and I immediately called it quits and sat down, elevated and iced. Already extremely nervous about race day and my foot keeping me from finishing, now I was more anxious!

I woke up at 6am so I could eat some toast and cereal, have a cup of coffee and let it settle while I relaxed with some tv. Garrett woke up and drove me about 20 blocks from our place to get me closer to where I needed to meet TNT in Golden Gate park before the race. I walked past the starting line and couldn't figure out where TNT was meeting and started to get nervous. After I walked pretty far and back, I panicked and called Andrea for a freak out session. I was already upset that this day wasn't exciting, that I was scared I wouldn't even finish... I didn't need to also go across the starting line alone! Anxiety ensued. Andrea was awesome, she said "I know! It's crazy, it's unorganized, it's crowded, it's overwhelming, but it's awesome too! I totally understand. But your going to be fine. You may have to accept you may not find your group and that sucks, but you are going to do great and you'll be fine." I was just about to "suck it up" when I saw a random lady with a TNT sign and she said almost all groups were up the hill. Great, more walking I didn't need. Ugh.

Ok, I'm starting off in a bad mood - this is not the way to start! Plus I definitely DID NOT want to rub off any negative energy or attitude to my fellow teammates who were excited and nervous. As soon as I saw some of my friends I threw on a big smile and told them they were going to do awesome. Annie, Angie, Nancy and our mentor Mike headed for the starting line. Earlier they said they saw Colleen, but she wasn't in sight :( Colleen was battling some injuries as well and was my walk/run buddy!

Well, I thought, I am lucky enough to have my girls with me to run over the starting line, that's more than I could ask for. The gun went off... and... we walked. LOL. If you've ever been in a large race and not in the very front, it takes a while to get across the actual starting line. We got a really good giggle in before we started running because we passed this group of supporters and their signs said "Train to Stroke" (or that's only what I could see) and I was like "whaaat in the worrrld?? Train to stroke??" Angie died laughing first and corrected me, "No, it says "train to END stroke" ... they needed to make the word "end" larger, that's all I'm saying.

We all ran the first mile (it felt like NOTHING!!) and stopped to do a quick stretch and then got back to it... we rounded mile 1.5 and our fabulous and talented TNT cheer section was full blast! They were some of the captains from our TNT group and they were on fire, yelling our names and cheering, it was great! I had to start walking after mile 2, but I was still in great shape and ready to walk/run the rest of my way. Just about mile 3 I saw our mentor Mike and... COLLEEN!!! :) I was SO happy to find her and I knew that we would make it. We were going to finish. Garrett was awesome! After dropping me off he went to the opposite end of the park and found parking close to the finish line for me. Then he went back to our place to get his bike and he road around until he met up with Colleen and I around mile 4. He was there ready with my other pair of shoes if I needed them, with extra snacks and a ton of support. He then went to mile 6.5 and met up with Andrea to cheer me on some more. Andrea... goodness! You could hear her cheering on everyone from about 100 yards away!

We walk/ran really well until we got out of the park and hit the Great Highway. A long, boring, cement stretch of flat road 3 miles out and 3 miles back. It's along the ocean, but you really aren't able to enjoy it from where you are at, especially staring into the sun going out from mile 7-9.5. Once you turn around the sun is at your back, your on your way toward the finish and you can somewhat enjoy the view a little better. At mile 8 I started to feel some pain. My right knee was aching a little bit and my injured left foot was getting tired and hurting. This was where I was going to have to walk the rest of the way. I was in pain and it was enough just to keep one foot in front of the other, I had to keep going. (don't worry if it was bad enough to quit I would have... but it wasn't that bad yet) Colleen was doing awesome and still walk/running and sometimes she would get ahead of me, but since her walk stride was slower than mine, I would catch up to her. At about mile 10 I was ready for a flask of whiskey and/or some heavy pain killers, lol. What was worse was Colleen and I couldn't remember if we'd passed the 11 mile marker or not and were really hoping the one we could see in the distance was mile marker 12. Yeah, it wasn't. At mile 11 Garrett and Andrea were there again cheering us on! I had eaten my snacks and about finished my fluids, so I handed off my belt to Garrett so I had less stuff bugging me. Two of our coaches and our Mentor Mike had crossed the finish line and came back to make sure Colleen and I got in. Once we got to about 12.5 we could see the finish line and we looked at each other and I can't remember who asked, but we said "are we gonna run it in?" I honestly did not know if my body was even going to be able to run at all - but sure enough, I did and we trotted across the finish line. I saw Garrett and Andrea and couldn't look at them or I was going to start bawling! It was so wonderful and overwhelming... I couldn't believe it was over... I DID IT!!!

People keep asking me what my time was and I try not to just laugh out loud. It was 3 hours and 30 minutes - again, I didn't even know if I would be able to finish! I am so happy! Funnier part is that they ran out of a lot of shirt sizes by the time I finished so they are mailing me my shirt, haha. We had to go check out with TNT so they knew we made it safely across the finish line. I can't believe Annie, Angie and Nancy were still there! They waited for us! It was great, there were lots of hugs and pictures and I got my TNT medal :)

Then I limped slowly to the car, parked awesomely nearby ;) and Garrett drove me to the ocean so I could do a quick "ice bath" dip. Can I say, it TOTALLY worked! I kneeled down in the ocean for about 5 minutes and was sore the next day only to the extent of a major workout that you might not have been expecting. The 2nd day, supposedly the worse day, I felt almost nothing! I felt great! We went to Bill's Place, the best burgers in SF, then walked a few blocks (a tad difficult for me, but I think that also helped my healing) to Trader Sam's for a fish bowl drink to celebrate. And numb my pain. hee hee. Not a bad picture for a 13.1 mile race and no shower, huh? Quickly after the drink I was ready for my nap. Garrett and I had a lazy evening with movies & a pizza. What an awesome day.

It was great, it was awful, it was fun, it was painful, it changed my life.

GO TEAM!!
Team in Training working with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to find a cure

Thank you Everyone!!
Much love,
~Shelby