St. Jude Half Marathon Recap

What a wonderful weekend we had in Memphis!  I am so thankful for my husband, Christopher, for driving me up there to such an amazing and rewarding event!  We had a long drive up there.  We left here Friday, a little after 9 in the morning and did not get to the expo until almost 4 o'clock that afternoon.  I was prehydrating so I had to stop and use the restroom A LOT.  I always drink about 60 ounces of half water and half Gatorade the day before a half. 

 The expo was a little overwhelming.  There were so many people and the lines were long to buy merchandise. I picked up my bib number and I was so excited to get another shirt!  We ended up getting a few shirts for the kids, a sticker, key chain and a headband and that was about it!  We ran into my teammates, Pam and Lauren and we took our picture by the St. Jude Heroes Ford Explorer that had our names on it. 

 When we left, it was dark outside and we still had to check into our hotel.  We valet parked at the Westin Hotel, checked in and had a really hard time figuring out how to use the elevator!  After a few minutes of going up and down, and getting stuck for a few seconds, we had to get new keys to use in the elevator.  We finally made it to our room and we were so tired.  We decided to eat the pasta dinner they offered downstairs which wasn't too great, but we were too tired to go explore Beale Street.  We finished our dinner, went back to the room, showered, snuggled and watched a movie.  It was "Walking Tall" with The Rock!  I love that movie!  There was a lot loud music playing and we could feel the booming and bumping in our room even on the third floor!  I rested, but did not sleep much.  The music finally stopped around midnight.  

Before I knew it, it was time to get up!!  It was race day!!  I was so nervous and excited!  I'd gotten a text from Debi Minnick (Girls Run the 901) to meet at 7:40 at the corner of 4th and Union Avenue on the steps of Autozone Park which is where we finished the race.  I was finally going to meet some very special friends I had connected with via Facebook, Debi and Cecilia Jones (Mommies Run) and see Angela (Race Addict), whom I had met back in June in Greenville, Mississippi at my second half marathon.  I got dressed, ate my banana and forced down my peanut butter sandwich.  Those are so hard to eat, but they do not give me any stomach issues like the Ezekiel bread and almond butter.  I didn't have to wake Christopher up until about 6:45 thanks to the 8 o'clock race start!  I looked outside my window and could see the 5k runners lining up.  There were so many of them and they looked COLD!!  I could see the St. Jude flags blowing in the wind and to think I almost wore shorts!  I thought the weather would be warmer, but my weatherbug showed the temperature would drop instead of warm up.  At 7:15, we walked out of our hotel and the huge crowd of 5k runners were heading out.  We waited for them to clear out and headed up the street by the Fedex Forum (I cannot remember the name of it) toward Union Avenue.  I sent the ladies a text asking exactly where to meet and Debi answered immediately. 

 She told me she was headed that way and had a pink flower in her hair.  Christopher and I walked right to Autozone Park and turned to the right and headed toward 4th street.  As soon as we stopped, I turned around to watch for the girls and I immediately saw Debi with a pink flower in her hair!  "Debi!!" I shouted and we both started squealing and hugging!  She called out to Cecilia and I got a hug from her too.  I introduced them to my husband and he took our picture, he kissed me bye and told me good luck.

I got to meet so many Run365 members and got to take a group picture with them! They were all so excited and I was so excited to be there!  Debi, Cecilia, Angela, and I took a picture and I met Danielle from Runningluv.

 I remember asking Cecilia if this was her first marathon and she said it was and I remember talking to Debi about being undecided on which marathon would be my first and she told me I needed to run the full there next year.  We hugged and parted ways.  I headed for corral 9 where my teammates and friends, Pam and Lauren would be and I was also supposed to meet my friend Shana, whom I had also connected with on Facebook thanks to my page.  

I ran right into Lauren and I started trying to text and call Pam because we couldn't find her.  My phone was not working very well, but we ended up finding her almost when it was time to start.  The three of us took a selfie and waited for our turn to start.  

I texted Shana, but we could not find each other with the sea of people.  Corral number 9 started around 8:10 or maybe even 8:15 and we were off.  Mile one started off pretty smoothly around 10:45 pace, not too slow and not too fast.  I was trying to keep up with Pam and Lauren and Pam tripped over a cone after the first mile marker looking for Lauren!  Scared me to death!  Miles 2 and 3 were a little too fast for me, around 10:22 pace, but I did get to meet Shana around mile 3 and her husband!  She came running up beside me because she saw my red pony tail swinging!  We chatted for a minute and she introduced me to her husband, then ran on up to hang with him.  We hit the mile 3 marker I believe on Beale Street.

 There were so many people and I high fived as many people as I could!!  Mile 4 was still pretty fast for me at 10:21 and I was trying to keep up with Pam and Lauren.  We started running through St. Jude Hospital.  I didn't see as many children as I thought I would.  I only saw one little girl in a wheelchair, but I continued to high five kids and the rest of the crowd.  Now, my watch said I finished mile 5 at 9:39 and I'm not sure if that is correct.  The weather was cold, windy, and clowdy so I don't think the connection was very good with my Garmin.  I do remember being really tired after I finished mile 6 at 10:59.  This is when I started walking so I could refuel with my Blueberry Muffin Larabar.  This is also where I lost Lauren and Pam.  It took me .2 miles to get that Larabar down so mile 7 was finished at 12:21.  This was the first race I could feel my mind start to mess with me a little bit.  That had never happened to me before and I almost sent my husband a text to tell him how tired I was and to pray.  Somehow I managed to keep going.  My legs were already feeling sore and that has never happened to me so early in a half which clearly means I started way too fast.  I know someone was praying for me because I slowly started to pick up my pace and the mental block started to go away.  Instead of thinking about how tired I was, I just kept running.  The course was so hilly, I felt like I was going up and down hill so much and not getting much of a break from it.  We ran through a park and mile 8 was finished at 11:20 and mile 9 at 11:18.  I started taking walk breaks at every mile marker and I must have taken 2 walk breaks because mile 10 was clocked at 11:56.  Oooooh weeeee I was tired.  

Mile 11, I finished at 11:27 and sent my husband a text saying I only had 2 more miles left!!  Even with all of the walk breaks, I managed to run 11 miles in exactly 2 hours.  Mile 12, I finished in 11:37 and mile 13, at 11:10.  My watch said I ran 13.1 miles in 2:24:40 but my official time was 2:27:06 at 13.34 miles.  My goal was to finish in 2 hours and 25 minutes so I was very happy and I was so excited to cross that finish line!

 I almost forgot to stop and get my medal and I didn't get one of those blanket thingys either.  I was so ready to hug my husband and tell him how hard this race was for me.  I bumped into Pam and Lauren and they finished about a minute ahead of me!  We all started talking about how the race went for each of us and it was definitely a tough one. We took a finisher picture together and started to head out of Autozone Park...which meant walking up stairs.

 Ouch!  My quads were pretty mad at me.  We slowly made our way up the steps and to the food tents.  FOOD!!!  I was starving!  I usually don't eat much right after a race, but I sure did that day!  We got our plastic bags and the volunteers gave us cookies and fruit.  I ate a banana while waiting in line for PIZZA!  I ate about half a piece of pizza and saw what looked like hundreds maybe thousands of boxes of DONUTS!!

 We were so excited and took lots of pictures with the donuts!  I called my husband who had just made it inside the park.  I was so happy to see him!  I asked Pam to take a picture of us and he took a picture of me with the girls.

 We parted ways and headed back to our hotel.  I was so cold and my sweet husband gave me his jacket.  I don't remember much about our conversation back to the room, but I was so happy to be with him.  He never saw me at the starting line.  We watched some of the marathoners pass by.  They looked so tired.  I do remember him asking me "Are you sure you want to do that to yourself?"  At the time, I thought "NO, no I don't!"  But you know we change our minds!  I bumped into my other teammate, Tina and her family on our way back to the room and we congratulated each other and hugged.

Wow, what a race... I remember getting emotional as I ran closer and closer to St. Jude Children's Hospital.  I remember the lump in my throat and being a little sad that I did not get to see many kids, but maybe I was running too fast!  I remember the mental toughness of the race from miles 6 and 7.  I wish I could say I focused on the kids and for Jaxon, but I didn't and I couldn't.  I started to pray and I asked Jesus and God for help.  I sometimes say "if You'll get me out of this I will never do it again!" And slowly but surely, He pulled me out of my mental fog.  I know someone was praying for me, and come to find out it was my Mother and my girls.  God gave me the strength to finish what I started.  I was so thankful when that race was over, but I still think I will come back next year...maybe for the full?!  This was the hardest yet most rewarding race I've ever run.  It was an honor to run in memory of Jaxon and for all of the children of St. Jude.  It has been a blessing to be a St. Jude Hero and part of "Team Jaxon."  Our team raised $11,485 for St. Jude Children's Hospital!  So awesome. I sure hope to raise even more money next year.