Strong Body by Rebecca Runs: The Cap City Quarter Recap

Well, I finished! I finished the Cap City Quarter Marathon without a hiccup or problem the whole way. This was my first race EVER and only the SECOND time I’ve run any further than a mile or two on a treadmill.

You see I’ve never seen myself as a runner. I’ve tried running in the past and never really fell in love with it so I avoided it like the plague. I always thought I was too slow to be a runner. I never believed in my body to think I could be an awesome runner if I tried.

Are you the kind of person that always tries things but never sticks to them? I’m the queen of doing this and most of the things I quit, I’m usually not very good at. When I first started trying to lose weight, I thought I would start by running. The most I ever got was about 5 houses down and I usually went around a corner so no one would see me stop so soon after starting. It was really embarrassing for me. Then one day I made it 10 houses. Another I made it a half mile. I remember coming home one day and telling Aaron I ran an entire mile around our neighborhood. I was ecstatic!

But I could never really get into it. We bought bikes last year and I really enjoyed going for a bike ride. It seemed easier to me and I liked riding fast unlike my slow running pace, if you could even call what I did running!

Then Sara fell in love with running and joined MIT. She talked about it all the time. Sometimes I wished I joined with her but I really didn’t like running that much to spend my Saturday mornings doing it along with hours required to train on my own. Oh, by the way, I’m not a morning person either. The thought of getting up at 7am on a Saturday was dreadful enough let alone to go run too.

One by one Sara recruited runners to come and join her group. She started coaching her group and the joy in her voice when speaking of them and cheering them on was amazing. Maybe I really was missing out on something.

Now I know why Sara loves running.

LOVE my first medal!

It started out with me waking up at 6:30 on a Saturday morning to get ready to head downtown. Why can’t these things be at 2pm? I was very excited to see there was no rain and the temperature was tolerable for me. I’m sort of a non-fan about being cold and wet. I ate my dry whole wheat waffle and we headed on downtown. Luckily we found a great parking spot and was able to meet Sara right out front of Nationwide arena near the finish line.

So, this is where we finish I say…. Sara replied, “yup.” Cool.

How many freaking people could be crammed into a short street? The lines for the porta potty’s were ridiculous! I started to feel a little claustrophobic! Good or Bad Idea but I refused to drink a lot before the race so I wouldn’t have to rely on a portable toilet to do the deed that morning!

We lined up in our Corral and I could FEEL the LOVE from everyone in that place!!! Sara is a running super star. Everywhere we went someone knew her. There were 25 people wearing in memory of Darlene back bibs.

In memory of Darlene Back Bibs!

 Okay, so apparently they let about a thousand people at a time go so it was a 10 minute wait before our pace group hit the streets. I started out with Sara because I wanted to support her and be there for her because I knew it was a difficult race for her without her mom. I think she laughed at me when I said, “wait, we haven’t even gone a mile yet!” The first few miles were rough. But then suddenly something hit me.

Some crazy runner’s voice inside of me was pushing me and making my legs go one after another. I felt like I was making Sara run too fast and I didn’t want to mess up her pace. She told me to go ahead and I did. I passed people like crazy and it felt amazing! Then I merged with the 1/2 marathoners around mile 4 and at that point they started passing me! Until mile 6, I felt like the wind was under my feet. I picked up the pace and hauled ass down Nationwide Boulevard to the finish line!

Legs shaking, heart racing … I saw a familiar face! Gail!!! She finished the 5k in 25 minutes and was waiting for her husband to finish the 1/2 marathon. Brian finished the marathon in just a few minutes more than it took me to complete the Quarter! My watch said 1:15 but the official time was 1:17. Gail and I forgot to take a picture in all the chaos of the end of the race.

I waited for Aaron to walk down and he never came. I called him and he said he didn’t even see me cross the finish line!! Are you serious…. I could have killed him for not paying attention!!

Anyway, we walked around the finish line party. Got some amazing stuff from Victoria’s Secret Sexy Sport VSX booth, some food and I begged my knee to stop swelling.

We finally found Sara!!! She gave me a huge hug and we found some champagne to toast and celebrate with a smile.

Celebration!

And we went to watch Mollie cross the finish line for her 1/2 marathon!

Finish Line

So after all of this story telling…. What did I learn from running this??

1) Don’t ever not train for any type of race! I think had a trained a little bit, my knee would not have reacted the way it did right after the race.

2) Make sure you drink at the re-fueling stations! They seem much farther apart while you are running than they actually are on the map.

3) Make sure your shoes fit properly before actually starting the race. Ooops.

4) Run with a buddy! It really makes the time go by faster. Know your pace though because you don’t want to throw other people off and burn them out before they are ready.

5) Running is an individual sport with team spirit. You should have seen ALL of the fans with posters, supportive stuff and giving High 5′s while we were running. It was amazing and kept me going for sure.

6) Let your body keep your pace. I didn’t have to speed up or slow down at all. It just ran at its on pace on its own time schedule and it ended up working out just fine.

7) Muscular Strength is uber important when it comes to running. I’d like to thank my Quads for pushing me through this race. They weren’t even sore today!

8) It really doesn’t matter how fast you are because unless you run a 5 minute mile, you aren’t going to actually win the race.

9) Running is fashionable. I’d like to think that I still was able to look cute during the race. I think the VSX by Victoria’s Secret gear made me run faster because I felt better about myself!!

10) I enjoy running. I am now a runner. So, Weird.

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