Why am I doing this?

As I mentioned in my previous entry, Catching Up, I ran the Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon in Virginia Beach about a month ago. This wasn't my first 1/2 Marathon nor was it the first 1/2 marathon that I have done this year. However, this was the first race that I had trained for during a TX summer. Not the brightest thing to do and Bill says I shouldn't do that again. I loyally got up several morning a week by 6:30 and ran my 4 or 5 miles and then every Saturday my friend Kim and I would do our "long" runs. Of course it continued to get hotter and hotter so we eventually were meeting by 6:30 on Saturday mornings which was torture. Kim wasn't even training for a race so this was great loyalty on her part to run with me 8 or 9 miles.

We both were progressively feeling worse on our long runs and when a "cool" front swept through Dallas in mid August leaving us with 60 degree temps in the morning we noticed how wonderfully better we felt on our runs. Amazing what that heat can do to you.

Anyway, I trained for this race from May until August and in August ran 11 1/2 miles on 2 consecutive Saturdays. I ended up doing those alone b/c there was no need for Kim to do that to herself for no reason.

Here's a little background on the Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon in VA Beach. First of all, for those of you who don't know this, I was born in VA Beach and lived there until I was 12 so this location was special to me. Plus my parents now live there again since they are retired. Several years ago I was reading Runners World and saw that they had added Virginia Beach to the list of Rock and Roll races and I thought it would be great to someday run this race. Years passed of course and last year while we were in VA Beach visiting my parents we went down to the boardwalk and saw that a lot of areas had been roped off. We were told that the Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon was the next day. I had completely forgotten about this race but at that point I said "I'm going to run this next year." Okay, so now you know why I was crazy enough to do this and why I trained through the TX summer to do it.

That brings us to race day. I was planning on getting up at 5:15 but Claire decided to wake up screaming at 4:15 so that was that. I left our hotel at 5:40 to catch the shuttle bus to the start line. It was pitch dark and I stood in line for the bus with other runners and patiently waited. 15 minutes later the bus came. We arrived at the start line at 6:00 just as it was starting to get light. I found the porta potties and stood in another long line just to use the bathroom. After another 15 minutes or so I was able to go to the bathroom and then I made my way to the start line. The runners were divided into heats based on projected finish times. When you register you have to say what you think your finishing time will be. I put 1:55 since I registerd right after I had done a 1/2 Marathon in Dallas with a finishing time of 1:57. During the summer my times had gotten faster so I was really hoping that I would finish closer to 1:49 but I was still put in the heat with those hoping to finish around 1:55. Anyway, I stood in my heat, Heat 7 btw, and all I could think was how nervous I was. I didn't know anyone so had no one to talk to so all I could think about was my nerves. I finally had to ask myself "why are you so nervous? This means nothing. You are not going to win money or prizes. You are not going to find a miraculous cure for a fatal disease. This is a run. It's just a run and it doesn't mean anything." I also had to ask myself several times "why am I doing this!!??"

The race finally started and in the first minute of running I realized that all that worrying had made me really have to pee! Just great. That's the last thing you want to have to stop for during a 13 mile run. I never did stop to pee and eventually really didn't have to go anymore. The race itself was great and I felt really good the whole way. There were bands and lots of high school cheerleaders. My times were as good as I hoped for. My dad even got to run with me a couple of times. My mom and Claire were on the course a couple of times too cheering me on. Sam and Bill were sleeping but at the end of the race I had to run right by our hotel and they were on the balcony. Sam didn't see me but I saw him and that's what matters. I finished with a time of 1:47 which was better than I had hoped and all in all it was a great race, probably the best one I've ever done. I felt fabulous afterwards and felt that I had accomplished something even though it wasn't greatness, but it was something. I guess I did get the answer to my question...this is why I am doing this.