13.1 for one of our own - Alyson!

I want to finally congratulate Alyson for running her first half marathon. Alyson, Linda and I left for Hartford on Friday, October 9 armed with tons of snacks, running clothes and stuff to laugh about. We had a great time driving to the hotel, going to the expo and hanging out with my brother & friends.

We were all pretty nervous. I felt like I wasn't prepared for this race being that I was just beginning to get my mileage up after my stress fracture. We only did a few long runs leading up to the race (6, 8 & 10 miles) and Alyson had just started running 7 months prior to the race!

It took some convincing to get her to agree to run the 13.1, but I think in her heart she really wanted to do it. My brother and his wife spent some time talking to her at a family party the week before the race. I think they got her pumped up a little bit. She finally made the decision just 2 days before the race.

I was really excited that she was going to do it. I knew I wanted to run the whole way with her and Linda decided she would stick with us, too. So, we were going to be a team the 3 of us. We'd get each other through one way or another.

We spent the night before trying on all our running outfits that we brought. It was hard to make a decision because we weren't sure what the weather was going to be like. We then pinned our race numbers on, slapped on some 13.1 (temporary) tattoos and tried to get some sleep.

Haha. The people next door had little kids that were up half the night. I don't think any of us got much sleep and before we knew it, it was time to get up and get ready.

We went downstairs and had some breakfast. Met up with Rick (my brother's friend) and off we went. Next thing I knew, we were standing in the midst of 8,000 other runners!

We picked up some pace bands at the expo. I love those things. You wear them on your wrist. For example, if you want to run a 2 hour race, it tells you what all your split times should be in order to make that goal. We took 2:30 & 2:15 bands.

The first few miles we ran fairly fast for us - around 10 minutes. I was thinking, "wow...if we keep this up, we'll finish at 2:15." If we slowed down, we'd still hit 2:30 so I thought either of those were good, realistic goals for us. And, going a little faster in the beginning would give us a little wiggle room later on if we got tired and wanted to slow it down.

The first 8-9 miles, I have to say went by VERY fast. Every time I looked down at my watch (which was pretty often) it seemed like another mile would click right by. We conveniently all hit the porta-potties at the same time which I believe was around mile 6 (?). There was lots of music along the course. Not to be too picky, but they could've chosen more upbeat music to play during a race...nonetheless, it was nice having some sort of music since we opted not to bring iPods. The more distractions on the course, the better off we'd be :-)

It was around the 9 mile point that the miles seemed to slow way down...I would look at my watch and it seemed to be stuck on 9 miles forever! We finally reached 10 miles and the miles got even slower. On the bright side, we knew we only had a 5k to go and we all knew that was doable. There was never any doubt that we'd finish, but we would've liked those last 3 miles to go by a little quicker!

Things had been eerily quiet for most of the race (between the 3 of us). Not much conversation going on at all. I think we were all very focused on the task at hand. Of course, the last mile was the longest mile. Finally, we came around the corner and there we were running down "the shoot" to the finish line. That's when I got really excited for Alyson. I kept looking at her saying, "you're gonna do it", "you did it", "it's over", and whatever else I said, I don't know. I know there are some pretty funny pictures of us. She is looking very determined and I'm next to her, looking at her with this big goofy smile. You can tell I'm talking. It's hysterical.

So, there you have it. Talk about determination! Alyson went from not wanting to be a part of this running group to 7 months later finishing a half marathon. That is something else. I can't tell you how proud this makes me! When I first started this group, I did it to share something that I loved with the people that I love. And, you guys responded. We met together, ran together and in the process, a lot of you became runners..you ran a 5k, some of you have run several 5k's and now we're doing another race together this weekend. You guys rock...

Congratulations to Alyson with a finishing time of 2:35! A lot of great memories were made that weekend. I would love for her to write her version of the race. It would be hysterical. Maybe I'll have to see if I can get her to do that and I'll post it here. In the meantime, here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure :-)