Wow, I can't believe it has already been almost a week since I ran the Magnolia Half Marathon in Meridian, Mississippi! I ended up not getting the PR I was hoping for, but I am still very proud of myself for my ability to take on the Meridian hills like I did!
I decided earlier in the week to go ahead and book a hotel room in Meridian for last Friday night. My original plan was to just drive up race morning, but I'm so glad I didn't do that. My husband had been out of town so I thought having a hotel room and a big king size bed all to myself for one night didn't seem so bad after all. I usually do not sleep well in hotel rooms the night before a race. Does anybody?? I messaged Tricia Vaughn from over at MissSippipiddlin back and forth during the week because she lives up there and was also running the Magnolia Half. She was so nice to include me in their dinner plans for the night before the race and she also gave me directions to the hotel I would be staying at. I booked my room at Fairfield Inn and Suites which was also where I would pick up my packet. My children got out of school early on Friday so I was able to head on up to Meridian a little after 2 o'clock. I made it up their in no time and found my hotel easily thanks to Tricia's directions! I checked into the hotel, took my luggage up to my room, then went back downstairs to pick up my packet. They asked me to write down what I wanted them to say as I crossed the finish line. I wrote that I run for Sophia, the children of St. Jude, and for my children. I headed back up to the room and sent all my people a text that I had made it safely to Meridian. I had such a nice room; the hotel upgraded me to a suite for some reason! I laid down and dozed off until about 5:30 and got up to get ready for dinner. Tricia had to come pick up her packet so she said I could ride with her, her husband Greg, and her friend Leah to dinner. We left a little after 6:30 and headed to a restaurant called Weidmann's. I ordered the chicken alfredo which had mushrooms and broccoli! It was delicious! Leah ordered fried green tomatoes, but I passed on those. I did eat some of Tricia's peanut butter and crackers! Yum! The food was great, but the company was even better. I enjoyed getting to know all of them even more. I actually met Tricia and Greg back in March at the Bring it to the Bay Half Marathon! It was so nice to sit down and have a meal together. It's hard to visit after a race because I'm usually TIRED. We finished up our dinner and they kindly drove me back to my hotel room. I headed up to shower and straight to bed. I didn't sleep much, but if I can just lay down and rest for a few hours, that is good enough for me.
Next thing I knew it was race morning! I got up at 515 AM and was out the door at 6. I have to be honest, I didn't eat anything and drank only a few sips of Gatorade before the race. I drink so much and eat a lot the day before plus I had had stomach issues almost during each long run while training. I really did not want any tummy issues on race day. I packed two small snickers bars in my flipbelt and planned eating the first one at mile 4. Hungry why wait?? I arrived at the park where the race started and waited for Tricia to get there. I sat in my truck with the heat on as long as I could. I decided to wear a short sleeved shirt and it was about 43 degrees outside. Brrrr. I got out and walked toward the porta potties and immediately saw Leah! I stood by her for a few minutes and decided to hit the porta potty one last time. I also saw my friend I met through Facebook, Jennifier George! She was there with her husband two daughters running her very first half marathon. I spoke to her while she was waiting in line and I spotted Tricia up the hill at the starting line so started walking up. We took pictures and I took one with Jennifier then it was time to run! The gun went off and I took off up the hill. That should have been my sign. If a half marathon starts on a hill, you will be eating them for 13.1 miles. The first 4 miles were rolling hills. Looooong rolling hills. My Garmin said I ran my first mile at 9:12. I think it is full of baloney. Surely, I didn't start that fast? For the next 3 miles, I ran 10:11, 10:17, and 10:10. I was feeling good, but I went ahead and ate one of my snickers. I stopped at all of the water stops. I drank red Powerade (Ick) twice and water the rest. I remembered Leah saying the first 6 miles would be tough and my miles 5 and 6 were 10:24 and 10:12. I looked at my watch to see I ran 6 miles in exactly one hour! I was super pumped because I was on track to PR and maybe if I hustled finish in 2:10 which was my goal time. Unfortunately I started to suffer a little during miles 7-10. It seemed like I was steadily hill climbing during these miles. There were so many ups and not enough downs to get a break from climbing. My pace for those miles started to drop. I ran 7-10 at 10:31 (big hill), 10:46 (getting tired), 10:53 (I took my first walk break at 9.5 miles because surely I could walk faster up the hill than I was running), and mile 10 I ran at 11:01 (tired just tired). But then something happened after I finished up 10 miles of the hilliest course I have ever run... The Whip and the Nae Nae song game on. Thank you Lord! I started thinking about the dance moves instead of how much my legs were hurting!! I even managed a couple of dance moves while running. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to take your mind off of what you are doing. If that makes sense. I think I ate my second snickers around mile 8 or 9. I honestly can't remember. Those miles are blurry. Back in March when I had a 4 minute PR, it was because I really picked up my pace for miles 10-13. I managed to pick up my pace again and I was so thankful for what seemed like more down hills to the finish line. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I ran miles 11-13 at 10:10, 10:15, and 10:22. My 13th mile might have been a little faster, if there had not been a ginormous hill to climb at 12.5 miles. I seriously could not feel my legs at this point. I just had to stop and take a picture of this hill and made sure to tell the volunteer holding up a poster at the top that that was just wrong to have to climb a hill at the end of a race. I had to cross over the 4 lane to get back to the park and I apologized to the police officers holding up traffic for me. I was basically hobbling as fast as I could. Thankfully, I made it across and that uphill we had to run at the starting line was a lovely down hill to the finish. Thank you Jesus. I said this a lot especially at the end of this race. I said "hey!" to one of Jennifier's little girls who was waiting on her Momma. I heard the announcer say my name and number and that I run for Sophia! I started running faster just in time to see the clock hit 2:16. I didn't care. I was so happy to cross that finish line and thankful the race was over. I saw Leah and she said she PR'd. I knew when she passed me that I should stick with her if I wanted to PR. Maybe next year I will have enough gas in the tank to tackle all of those hills!! My legs hurt so badly, I sat down to stretch and talked to Jennifier's youngest daughter. She said she was almost 7 years old. I told her I had a little girl who was 8! I decided to eat something so I grabbed a piece of pizza and went to sit in my truck a minute. I took one bite of the pizza and it almost came right back up. Nope, can't eat that just yet. I put my phone back in my phone case and went back to the finish line to find Tricia and Jennifier. They had both just finished their race! We took pictures and chatted for a few minutes then it was time for me to go shower and gather my things to head home.
I told Jennifier she picked the hardest half marathon to run first and if she could run that one she could run them all. Wow. What a morning and what a challenging race! I do love a challenge and I do remember laughing during the race because it was so hard. Sometimes I laugh when I should probably should start crying! I am so thankful for this race and the whole experience. I can't say enough about the people up there in Meridian. Super super friendly and nice people. The volunteers and the police officers kept us safe and they did such an amazing job. The wooden medal was just the icing on the cake. My first wooden medal! Even though I didn't get that PR I was hoping for, I feel like I trained the best way I could running hills every week all summer and through the fall. Last year when I stepped up to the starting line in Pensacola, I already had a hurt knee. This year I stepped up to the starting line injury free and did not experience any knee pain whatsoever during this half marathon! Praise the Lord!! I have been pain free for 7 months now and it is such a blessing. I have struggled with so many different kinds of knee pain that I hope this encourages you to know it can go away and stay away! My advice is to go get fitted for shoes and try to work on your running form. I used to be a heel striker and now I run on the balls of my feet. It takes practice, but for some reason since I have done this, my knees don't hurt. Running the Magnolia Half Marathon showed me all of my hard work paid off, that I'm still a strong distance runner, maybe not the fastest, but strong. I like the word "strong" better than the word "fast." Two years ago, I ran my first half marathon in 2:18:56 and it was completely flat. Two years later, two years older, I ran the hardest, hilliest course ever in 2:16:03. Strong. I like that. Next weekend I will run the St. Jude Half Marathon in Memphis. To get a course record, I will have to beat 2:27:10. I'm still hoping to PR even though this course will be hilly too. I'm going to run as hard as I can for those children. Thank y'all for reading and for sticking with me on this journey!! God gets all the glory for bringing me this far. It has been such a blessing to not only run, but to be able to run pain and injury free. Amen!!
