Run for Hope Half Marathon
Finishers:
February 21, 2014
Here we go again! After a bit of a break, it was time to get the 2014 race season off and running! Literally....running. My first stop brought me to Mississippi and since I just love driving so much, I jumped in the car early and made my way out of Georgia and across I-20 to the great state of Alabama, Ok, I actually hate driving so I decided to stop in Birmingham and grab coffee with my bestie, Andrew Bahn, who is finishing up his Architecture program in BHam. I hadn't seen him since Christmas in Saint Louis so we had some catching up to do and as always talked about him soon joining the real world. Kids grow up so fast these days =)
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| Welcome to Mississippi! |
After our long visit, I hit the road again and made my way through the rest of Alabama and then on into Mississippi. Once in Mississippi, the roads got a bit less direct of a route and I found myself making a lot of turns and then eventually coming up on Oxford. Well, hello University of Mississippi! Let's see how your small SEC town measures up to Auburn. I went ahead and checked into the hotel and then walked across the street to the conference center to take care of the whole packet pickup business. This expo consisted of a folding table and.....welp, that's it. It was still mid-afternoon and not feeding time so I decided to explore the campus by driving the course. Um...no one told me Mississippi had so many hills. This was going to be fun. One thing I noticed on the course was that the turn at Mile 4 was onto McElroy Road - which made me happy thinking I would in some small weird way be joined by Kali's vibe for some of my race.
Mile 7-9 was around the campus and through the Grove which I assume looks a lot different when populated with tents and tailgators. Mile 10 was basically just a mile long hill - that went straight up. I was happy that I was driving the course in advance so this wouldn't be a surprise to me the next morning. The last bit of the race was through neighborhoods and then back to the start. I had a big morning in store for me - that was for sure.
I parked in the downtown square area and wandered around for a bit (anyone from Oxford is probably embarrassed by my lack of town lingo - sorry). It was Friday so a lot of kiddos were out and about carrying coolers somewhere. No one invited me though - weird. I found some postcards and then went back to the hotel where I ran probably far too much analysis on the course and the elevation and broke it up into little manageable pieces. I also decided on dinner and called in an order to Jax's - which is probably the worst thing you could eat seeing as I decided on cheese stuffed meatloaf. mac n cheese, bacon green beans and cornbread. I ate early and then just noodled around for a while and then got hungry again (I'm a mess) so I went out and got 2 cheeseburgers and fries from McDonalds. I know, I know, I know.... Don't worry, I finished it all and went to bed full and happy.
February 22, 2014
FIRST RACE DAY OF THE SEASON!!! Nerves - check. Ate a banana and part of a granola bar and then wandered around because the race started legit right outside the door of my hotel. It was a super small race which I wasn't used to but there's a first for everything - and I was in Mississippi - what'd I expect? We all lined up in the street and then we were off.
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| Snapchat for Katrina prerace - Pretending I'm sponsored by LeBron |
As I mentioned, the course was hilly and the first few miles were rough. Up and down and up and down we went through the neighborhoods. The bad part about the race being small is that we all got pretty spread out and you were never really running in big groups like I was used to. I had a lot of alone time on the back roads of Mississippi. I got to the 4 mile McElroy turn and fell into a comfortable groove. Wasn't flying but also wasn't shuffling along either - and I was okay since I hadn't run in a while. The course slowly got back towards civilization and then onto the Ole Miss campus around mile 7 or so. I was expecting a lot more college kids out cheering but then I realized it was like 7 or 8am on a Saturday and quickly changed my expectations. We ran past a bunch of Greek houses and then back by the Grove like I had done the previous day. At one point, I was running next to this small child and her dad. Evidently she was only 7 and was trying to break a bunch of records for fastest baby running a half marathon. It sort of made me sad because I feel like her DAD was in it to break the records and she was just doing it because he told her to - I've got some strong feelings about parents like that. I eavesdropped on their conversation with other strangers for a while to pass the time and noted his whole family were very young runners. Not my circus, not my monkey - so I continued on my way off campus to the hill I knew was in my future.
Why do these race directors do this to us - Ya know? Yes, I want a challenge but my challenge is straight up showing up, not crawling up mile long hills. I had no where to go but up so I put on my big girl pants and my shuffling shoes and up I went putting one foot in front of the other. I finally made it to the top a bit winded and stiff and I had a hard time picking my pace back up. The course was heading back towards the town square but it still felt like we had forever to go and we weren't making much progress. Since it was a small race, the roads weren't closed off and I just sort of felt like a burden to all of the cars. It was a rather uncomfortable feeling. The last mile or so I was joined by a chatty lady who joined me in my pain and shuffle to the end of the race. Of course the last half mile or so was also all uphill but I was bound and determined to find that finish line. Finally, after what felt like ages, I got off the hill, turned the corner and finished my race!
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| Official Race Pic - 22 states down, 28 more to go! #DREAM BIG |
I somehow started chatting with some ladies who were curious about my number card when I took my picture and I told them about my goal. Some of them got my name so that they could follow my progress on Facebook (#fanclub). I didn't have all that much more to stick around Mississippi for so I showered up and hit the road to head back to Alabama.
Andrew Smith's family was having a big barbeque at his grandma's farm and the whole gang was there so I decided not to drive all the way back to Atlanta and join them instead. It was a long stiff legged drive but well worth it when I arrived to the largest spread of food I could ever imagine. Jack, Danny, Hunter and Andrew were all there and I met the whole extended family to thank them for the invite and told them about my race and just ate til I couldn't eat anymore (rare). Later that night, Andrew's cousin and I decided to sing "Let It Go" from Frozen during karaoke with the little kids and I don't think they were aware what they were in for when they requested our "back up vocals". We blew these little girls eardrums off in true superstar fashion. We ended the night all hanging out around the fire pit until I literally couldn't keep my eyes open and we all called it a night. A wonderful end to a long day! Lucky to have such great friends!
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| No better scene after a long race than a BBQ |
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| My post race party - I mean Andrew's Family BBQ (Jack, Hunter, Ash, Danny, Andrew) |
22 states down, 28 to go!
#DREAMBIG
