final post for the pf chang race, more to come for VA beach!

ok, fine...final chapter of the training went about like this.

good taper schedule the 2 weeks prior to the race, really easy the actual few days before (aka, lazy me!) 2 pairs of socks all of the time for the last week before the race to insure the healthiest blister-free heels for race day (HAHAHA, that didn't work too well as we will see at mile 4!)

slight stress 2 days before traveling, dad fell on his head and knocked himself around a little, great shiner though & he looked pretty tough with the arm roadrash too!. got in to arizona on a stress free flight, smooth sailing, great plane nap. met with the 'rents, waited for the wongs, all got the van and headed north to sedona. LOVED sedona, very pretty, full of energy, cool little new agey town with an eclectic, somewhat posh feel. got to flagstaff, FROZE (only looked at the weather for pheonix which was about 40 degrees warmer), spent the night in our awesome vacation house. woke up, headed to scottsdale for the expo and the pasta lunch. almost missed the pasta lunch, got there just in time, LOTS of inspiration, really got to see into the mission of TNT. met with the VA team for last minute instructions and such, went to the expo to get our numbers & retail therapy. met up with mom, went to eat some dinner, dad came and met up with us after meeting with his team. Food, back to the hotel for luggage retrieval and goodnight to mom and dad. lisa and i spent the next hour or so getting our stuff together for the big early AM departure for the start line. quick aside, have NEVER seen Lisa that crazy, totally freaked out, funny as all get out. this chick was cool as a cucumber on her wedding day, totally wigging out before the race....hysterical. fully dressed in race attire, off to bed for 12 minute increments of sleep, between fear of oversleeping and fear of miranda night terrors, there was little actual rest going on. woke bright and early to find the door decked out with decorations from both VA and East Bay teams as well as finish line streamers across the door. the whole hotel looked like a dorm during rush (delta delta delta!!!) with signs and streamers, pretty darn cool! off to the lobby to meet with the team, quick bagel and cream cheese, some water, a pee break, and we were on the bus headed to the race.

on the bus, suddenly realize what i am about to do and bagel threatens a repeat performance. manage to calm down, stand in a porta-potty line for a LONG time with Lisa, don't have to go yet but figure i will by the time i get up there. grammy st.clair is proud, i worked out some drops. lisa heads to her corral and i see dad moseying on over. meet him and bea for some warm up and confidence building time. head over to our corral for start. wave starts happen every 2 minutes, we are in corral 25, almost an hour into the race and we haven't started yet. turns out, the winner of the half marathon will be crossing the finish line 16 minutes after we cross the start (aka mile 1!). finally get out and moving and it is great! sunny day, cool, but clear. there are SO MANY PEOPLE!!! having fun, trucking along at a respectable pace of about 15 min mile give or take. see frank at mile 3ish, he and miranda are there to take pics and miranda yells "GO TEAM" at anything purple.

about mile 4 the heel starts to tell me there is a bit of a chance of a blister, but i have put a prophylactic blister band-aid in place so i'm not too worried. since i have been battling blisters throughout the training, i am pretty sure i have this figured out and under control. just like in the training, i have on 2 pairs of socks, the running socks against my feet and the cotton ones over to provide extra cushion. decide to check in on the hot spot to be sure, better safe than sorry later right? WRONG! take off the shoe, the band-aid is gone, mysteriously shed into my sock. dry off the heel with tissues i packed for just this reason, put on a new band-aid (i have 2 full boxes worth in my pocket to be safe), re-lace the shoe and take about 5 steps before it feels like a cheese grater is running up and down my achilles tendon. stop again, take off the shoe and this band-aid is gone too! figuring i didn't get the heel dry enough, i really wipe it off and even let it air out for a minute or so before putting on the new band-aid. re-lace, head out, screaming pain in the heel. this continues on and off for the next mile and a half until at mile 6 i take the sock off completely and i figure out the problem....the inner sock is wicking, the outer one isn't. the inner sock is sitting there soaking wet (which i couldn't feel because it was so arid out, i didn't even know i was sweating) with no place for the moisture to go. Meanwhile, that great race time that we started with is quickly going away and we are getting closer and closer to not finishing in time to get a finishers medal and being picked up by the sweeper. finally, the sweeper comes by and tells us we have to get moving or be done. with that, i took off the wet sock and only wore the dry outer one, tied my shoe as tight as i could to put the strain on the ball and arch of my foot rather than the heel and just sucked it up and went on.

Many miles, lots of Gu, really great cheerleaders, good music and my infallible partner in crime Pop by my side, we trekked the rest of the way. somewhere around mile 8 we started playing this game of missile command where we set our eyes on someone and just worked to pass them. then, at first, dad would say "toast" when we passed them. eventually this generalized to other carbohydrate products and breakfast goodies, so when we passed 3 or 4 people at a time, it became "stack of pancakes" or "brioche".

around mile 10.5 we saw bea, who was an AWESOME help and not the least bit put off by the fact that i had stopped being sociable about ten minutes earlier (i was just digging deep trying to block out the blisters that had now moved into the other heel too!). at the last bend, mile 12 we came over the bridge and there was mom holding up a TNT sign for us and cheering her butt off. she took some great pics, almost lost her phone, and got a nasty shin goose egg from bumping into a bench while trying to document our success. she even ran ahead with bea to get some pics! Finally, mile 12.6, 1/2 mile to go and we were almost out of juice. dad and i broke into a gallop trying to drop that final time down just a little. at this point, we were just so slap happy, and running on endurance and glucose, plus we were really working to bring down some of the time we had lost on the band-aid malfunctions. at the highest, with all of the stops, we were averaging about a 24 minute mile, and we had to do some serious trucking to bring it back down. in fact, i think that if you figured the actual pace we were going every time we were moving, we would have finished in less than 3.5 hours. after all was said and done, we made it in at 4 hours, one minute and seven seconds for dad, eight seconds for me. i was hoping for under 4 hours, but a finish is a finish and a medal is a medal! Lisa was there waiting for us at the finish line, she had been there for almost 2 hours because once you leave you can't go back in. she waited with no food, no blanket, just first aid and ice so that she could be at the finish line. as soon as i saw here, i knew we really did it! dad and i crossed that finish line together & there with my sister, the whole family of champions! what an experience!

So in all, great day, amazing success, heels blistered up like bubble wrap packing material and only wearing birkenstocks with no backs for the next week or so, but all 3 of us made it in, no major injuries, 3 personal best times (til next time!). the actual picture of the finish line is a little different than the one i carried for so many months (i'm sweatier and my hair is less Farrah Fawcett feather and more Vinnie the Auto Mechanic greasy) but we are all there together and it's real and that makes it SO much better!