Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Flying Pig Half Marathon

I know you're all on the edge of your seats waiting to hear about how badly I bombed at the Flying Pig... Well, here it is! I'll start with the blow-by-blow of my entire weekend...

Thursday night- I had some contractors here for work and they invited me to dinner. I accepted, as I was hon-gry and craving Mexican food. As we were finishing up our dinner, some random girls started hitting on one of the contractors. They then joined our table and hung out for a bit. Roughly five margaritas later, we all decided it would be a grand idea to go to a bar. And that's all I have to say about that.

-3 hours of sleep-

Friday morning- I had to be at work at 5am for inventory. Miserable, miserable day. I left work just after 2pm.

Friday evening- We had tickets to the Cardinals game- me, the kids, and my parents. It was a FANTASTIC game, and it went into 11 innings. The Cardinals won with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the 11th. Woohoo!

-3 hours of sleep-

Saturday morning- I had to be at work at 5:30am to help finish the recounts for inventory. This drug on until 1:15pm.

Saturday afternoon- I drove the 3 of us like a bat out of hell to Cinci. We made it at just before 5:30pm. Only, they are an hour ahead of us, so it was really 6:30pm and the expo closed at 7pm. We RAN to the expo, got our race packets, and hurriedly went through what was left, since a lot of vendors were already packing up.
We didn't get dinner until somewhere around 9pm or so, flatbread pizzas that we took back to our hotel and ate. (yum!) Then, we proceeded to stay up until 11:30pm or so talking and laughing. We had a great time!

-4.5 hours of sleep-

Sunday morning- We got up and had trouble getting going. We didn't leave our hotel until around 6:15am (race start time was 6:30am), parked and started RUNNING to the start. Somebody stopped us and told us that the race start time was postponed by about 15 minutes (whew!) Later, we found out that there had been a 3-alarm fire at around mile 22 of the marathon, and the course was diverted. We got lined up and ~bang!~ we were off.

I ran extremely slowly. Of course, with the minimal amount of "training" I have been doing, along with the lack of sleep, what more could I expect? I think my finish time was 2:37, almost 45 minutes slower than my half from last February!
The course was very nice. I really like Cincinnati, and enjoyed running through the city. The support along the course was outstanding. I really can't say enough about how awesome the support was. One of the best races I have ever done. I had a great time, and didn't really care what my time was. I even stood in line at the port-a-potty's at the 2nd water stop for about 5 minutes! I couldn't hold it any more... Even though it was my slowest Half ever, I enjoyed it more than any Half I've ever done.

After I finished, and soaked in as much of the freebies as I could at the finish line, I went and found a position to watch the marathon finishers and saw Barbie and Shanna as they ran in. Shanna finished her first marathon at 20 years old, and Barbie qualified for Boston! Since Barb's hubby doesn't care to go, I get to go with my BFF to Boston next April!

Now, the big question is.... can I get back in shape before next Spring and BQ myself between now and Boston?

I think I'm gonna try...

4 comments:

Al's CL Reviews said...

You can DO EEET (said in my Tony Little voice)! Awesome. Sounds like you had fun, which is most important!

Carly said...

Nice job! I am impressed you are walking let alone running on that little bit of sleep.

Viv said...

Arrribba with the rita's! It sounds like you had fun and that is always welcomed. The Cards and winning on the las inning,...grr! Remember I am in Astros fan so the Cards always rip my lil heart out. LOL!

You did great Tammy, so imagine what you could do with some serious training. I could see you getting that BQ. I want to you to do it and you know you want to so get it!!

Unknown said...

I am SURE that you can do it, Tammy! I am also tres impressed with how well you did considering the few days leading up to the race! I hope to do that well WITH training! :) Keep up the good work and I BET you will be running in Boston, not spectating (is that a word??)!