Running is a mental sport and we're all insane!

That was a caption that I saw on the t-shirt of a girl running the Rock N'Roll Arizona Half Marathon. When I saw it I had to crack up... it's funny because it's true :D Here's a recap of my Half Marathon weekend in frigid Arizona:

Saturday Jan. 13:
Up and out of the house before the sun was up-- off to the SF airport to catch the team flight to Phoenix. It's funny how runners will tend to find eachother-- while waiting for our flight to board, Mama Lisa and I ran into a guy who was making a detour on the way home from a work conference to run the marathon in AZ. He and Mama Lisa chatted about ultra-marathons, I headed to the bathroom to pee for the gazillionth time.

Once we got to AZ we were shuttled to the Hyatt in downtown Phoenix, our hotel for the weekend. The hotel was really nice, but even nicer was that I got my own room! After putting my stuff in the room I headed downstairs to grab a sandwich and MORE water and then it was off to the Expo. The Expo was HUGE, which I expected, and CROWDED, which I expected too. After grabbing my packet, t-shirt and making a lap around the Expo, I headed back to the hotel to lay out all my gear for the next day.

Our pasta party that night was at the Convention Center which was thankfully right across the street from the hotel. After going through the "gauntlet" of cheering TNT staff and coaches, I sat at a table with Chris, our other EB runner, and some SF run people. Is was your typical Pasta Party... not-too-great pasta, too many speakers, and of course tears and laughter. The laughter came during a pep talk given by the Penguin, aka John Bingham. Even though I've heard John talk many time before, and even though he covers some of the same topics, he always cracks me up. He like a runner's comic... no one gets the jokes but us :D He did a shout out to Mama Lisa-- I wish the whole team could have been there to show her the love, instead of the cheers coming from just Chris and I! The tears came from our Honoree speaker. Her daughter had cancer and passed away not too long ago. She talked a lot about how all of us in the room were Heroes for doing what we were doing-- for making the choice to train on behalf of and raise money for people like her daughter. Man, where were the Kleenexes when I need them!

Sunday Jan. 14:
Ahhh, race day :D I didn't sleep well the night before... the room was too hot and I was too paranoid about not getting up on time. I got up at about 5:00 AM, did all my pre-race prep, put on the warmest running clothes I brought since I knew it was going to be a cool day, opened the door to head downstairs and found this outside my door:

Thanks Abby :D I met up with Mama Lisa, Chris and the SF team down in the lobby at 6:00 AM. Mama Lisa, Chris and I decided to write CANCER on the bottom of our shoes so that with each step, we would know we were doing what we could to stamp out Cancer (I wish we could take credit for that idea but we stole it from our Honoree speaker the night before). Because the bottom of our shoes aren't smooth you couldn't really read it, but we knew it was there. At about 6:30 we decided to head over to the shuttle that was going to take us to the start. Standing in line, we got the first feel of what the temperature outside was... downright arctic. It was FREEZING, well technically it was BELOW freezing, 27 degrees to be exact. And here I am in my running capris, singlet, long sleeve shirt and another thin shirt on top of that. No gloves, no long pants, no ear warmers. I was in big trouble.

We got to the start around 7:00, a good half hour before the marathon was set to start and and hour and a half before my race, the half marathon, would start. Anyone who knows me well know that coffee doesn't always agree with my tummy or my digestive system. And on race day, you don't want to mess with anything that's going to wreak havoc on your system. Well I was so freezing cold, I actually got a hot, steaming cup of heaven (aka Coffee) to hold in my hands... I even drank the whole cup hoping that a warm tummy would mean warm fingers and toes :D I watched the marathon start and then walked around a little trying to keep the blood circulating before I checked my bag about 15 minutes before the half marathon start. By the time I made it to my corral (#14 of 27) the sun was starting to come out and when you stood in a the sun it wasn't quite as cold. My back was already starting to tighten up though from all the shivering. 8:30 rolls around, no starting gun. 8:35, no starting gun. 8:40, no starting gun. OH COME ON PEOPLE, I'm freezing my hiney off! FINALLY at 8:45 the gun goes off and by 9:00 I'm across the starting line!!

My game plan going into the race is to keep it nice and slow for the first 10 miles and after that, depending on how I feel, I can speed up. I know that I won't be PRing here so my goal is to finish feeling less crappy than I did after San Jose and Nike. Thanks to my awesome Garmin 205 GPS watch, I can see my current pace and try to stay around a 12 minute mile. (I know, a snail's pace but I've embraced my slowness :D) Within the first mile I see some portapotties lined up along the street... even though I don't really have to pee, I can't pass up a line of porta potties with no lines! For the first mile and a half, I literally can not feel my feet. At first I'm afraid that something is seriously wrong but then it sinks in that they're just very, very cold. I start to see gloves, sweatshirts and sweatpants strewn across the road as people start to warm up and strip off their extra layers. Two things come to mind: 1) I could have used these cast offs a mile and a half ago and 2) Mama Lisa's going to have a field day with all these discarded gloves-- they'll be great additions to her collection :D

Around mile 3 a bead of sweat actually breaks out on my face. I must be starting to warm up a little-- YIPEE!! I'm feeling pretty good so I run through the first water stop and just drink a little gatorade. I think the problem I've had with my last races is that I drink too much water and not enough gatorade, leaving me feeling nauseous and light headed. So this time I've decided to drink all gatorday and save the water for when I take a Gu.

The half marathon course isn't all that exciting. It's flat, which is good, but not particularly pretty. A lot of businesses, some apartment complexes, and flat, barren land, with the occasional cactus, for miles. I see a lot of interesting people along the course, one man singing to himself quite loudly, people with very clever t-shirts, a LOT of Team In Training people and of course lots of live music! The TNT support was great... lots of people yelling "Go Olivia", and "Go Team"! Once we got into Scottsdale it was a little prettier-- we passed by the field where the A's play during Spring Training. It was funny to be all the way in Arizona and run by a place that is actually familiar!

By mile 11 I was feeling really good and felt like I had plenty of energy left for the last two miles so I increased my pace a little bit. After mile 12, I reached THE ZONE, that point where everything feels right. You get chills and this euphoric feeling. You feel like you could run forever and never get tired. You feel like a rockstar! Thanks to my handy dandy watch I knew that I had only .5 miles until the start so I kicked it into high gear. I was passing all these walkers and people who just looked beat-- didn't they know the finish line was so close?! I crossed the finish line, remembered to smile and NOT look at my watch (so my head wouldn't be down in my picture :D) Final time: 2:41:49. Not my best but damn I felt good :D I picked up my medal, got my picture taken, picked up my bag and headed to the TNT tent to check out. They had some PT people there stretching people so I waited in line (chowing down on peanut butter crackers and guzzling my past race electrolyte drink-- no water yet for me!) to have my back stretched.

Back at the hotel I took a cold water bath, ate the chips I took from the TNT tent and took a well deserved nap. I got up in time to make it to the Victory party but I didn't stay long after I finished eating. I just wanted to veg out, knit and watch some TV.

Monday Jan. 15:
I woke up the next morning with no muscle soreness and just a few stiff joints :D I slept MUCH better than I did on Saturday night! Sunday night I had decided that I was going to treat myself to room service for breakfast so I filled out the form, hung it on my door and then just like magic, my cinnamon Bun French Toast appeared at door at 9:30 :D Yummmm

After a morning of relaxing, it was time to pack up and head to the airport for the plane ride home! So long Arizona! I'm just so happy that my last race of the season is finished... Arizona turned out to be a great race for me but the idea of training for another run just doesn't appeal to me at all. We just started a new season and although I'm captaining again, I'm not training for any races right now. Who knows what my next race will be!