Sunday morning started bright and early. I got myself ready, hopped in the car and drove to the hotel next door to pick Katie up. We were heading to the start together. We got caught in some horrible traffic on our way to the start. They moved the start line of Donna this year and there were some kinks with how smoothly they were able to get everyone in to park. We were early enough that we weren't stressed about making it on time but it was still frustrating. We parked and headed to the port-o-potties where we found a few ROTErs. As we made our way to the start, we met up with even more ROTErs so that by the time we were in our corral, we had a nice group to hang with. They delayed the start for 30 minutes because of the parking issues which was a bummer. It was FREEZING cold and I didn't love standing around being cold before the start. Oh well, at least I was in good company.
I need to add that I had the worst pre-race jitters that I've ever experienced. Not that I've run that many marathons, but by far, this was the worst. I'm sure it had A LOT to do with how badly my marathon at Disney went 5 weeks prior. It didn't matter that I knew why I was so scared, I was still terrified I wouldn't be able to finish in time.
I was impressed with the start of the race. They actually prayed. Not a fake prayer but a genuine prayer. I'm guessing Donna is a Christian? Anyway, that was a really cool part of the race to me.
Finally, we were off. I had made plans before the race to hang with Deb. She is much faster than me but was looking to take it slow and have someone to hang with and I was very happy for the company. Janice started the race with us also and said she would hang with us as long as she could. We covered the first mile a bit faster than I knew I could maintain for the long haul so we pulled back just a bit. We were still going faster than I believed I could maintain but I figured I would keep the pace up as long as my body would let me. I kept telling them that I probably wouldn't be able to maintain that speed and I would have to slow down at some point. They probably got so sick of me saying that. I'm pretty sure I was still saying it at mile 15.
I enjoyed the course and the neighborhoods we ran through very much. I stopped and had mini pink frosted cupcakes from one house and munchkins from another house. It was fun and the neighborhood support was really cool. During the race, we kept leap-frogging with Joan and Chris. It really does make it more fun when you see friends out on the course. We hit the 2 1/2 mile stretch of beach that I knew was coming and it was the worst part of the race for me. I was cold and still had my throwaways on and the wind on the beach was so stiff. It was a headwind which was so much worse than a tailwind would have been. I endured that part of the race the best I could and I tried not to whine too much. The beach was where we ran past my hotel. Patty & Louise were out there chEARing for me which was a nice pick-me-up. Just past Patty & Louise, we came across Deb (not the Deb I was running with, another one). She was rooming with Katie and was out there freezing and chEARing on whatever ROTErs she could find.
Once we exited the beach, we caught up to Joey & Matt who were with Joan & Chris at that point. We leapfrogged with all of them for maybe a mile before Joey & Matt took off to finish the race at their speed. It was a fun pick-me-up to see them too.
We kept up with our intervals and I'm not even sure at what point I realized that if I could maintain it, I could PR the race. I kept doing the math in my head every mile to see if I could still do it. About mile 18, we passed my hotel again and Patty & Louise were out front waiting for me. They had a banana for me which was awesome! Just having them out there encouraging me on was really cool. A couple miles later, around mile 20, we came to the bar that we knew Mark & Mindy were sitting at chEARing. We paused briefly to say hi and let them know that Joan & Chris were just behind us. They told us that Joey & Matt had stopped for a drink and had just left a few minutes before we got there.
We kept going and about mile 23, Janice & I were getting pretty tired (I'm pretty sure this was a walk in the park for Deb). We dropped our intervals down a bit. I kept doing the math in my head and it still looked like I would be able to PR. At about mile 24 was where we had the uphill cloverleaf with a nasty camber. Our intervals really seemed to fall apart in that part. The cloverleaf lead to the causeway which looked horrible. Janice saw it and told us she was going to have to walk the uphill part. I looked at Deb and said lets do 30:30's up the hill. We did and then tried to make up some time on the downhill portion. We were so close and I was still on track to PR. We crossed the finish line in 6:26:40 which was about a 2 minute PR for me. Pretty cool considering I was afraid I wouldn't even be able to finish the race when I started. Janice finished a few minutes behind us with a PR for herself also.
The finish line area was pretty deserted and there was no post-race anything left by the time we came through. They had delayed the start of the race by 30 minutes but still closed up the finish line area at the originally planned time. I can't even begin to tell you how bummed I was over that.
All the ROTErs who had finished before us had gathered around some tables and chairs to relax and chat for a bit. That was a mistake, I should have stretched. Trust me, I paid for that in the days to come. I was just so happy to be done and to sit down.
It was a great way to finish my marathoning days. At least, I think I'm done with marathons. That will have to be another post for another day.
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