RnR New Orleans 26.2-#DoEpicShit

Pre Race

I was excited at the thought of putting 26.2 miles…IN. THE. BOOKS! My goals included enjoying the experience until I no longer enjoyed the experience and a finish time of 6:59:59 or not. I am always happy to have THE. BEST. HUSBAND. EVER support me, but it is even sweeter when he is participating and earning his own bling (he did the 10k)

Me and THE. BEST. HUSBAND. EVER!

My "Do Epic Shit" face!

Me, Brandi, Stella, and Anitra...and random lady...lol

Miles 1-11

I felt great and I actually enjoyed these miles. I maintained a comfortable pace using 2:1 walk/run intervals, I danced to the music, and took pictures with friends and strangers. I stopped at the port-o-potty, stretched, and enjoyed these miles (except for the horrible street conditions).

Natalie Reed...one of my favorite people, she was a very bright spot for miles 10ish to 12

Disco Lady

Mile 12-The split

Yeah…so this is where the mind games began. I was irritated and hot. As much as I wanted to go right, I didn’t want to go right. I don’t quit. I also noticed  that the RnR mile markers were short by 0.25 miles; this bothered me every time my Garmin turned over a new mile and I could see the course mile marker 0.25 miles away. That’s all I have to say about mile 12.

Who is she smiling at? 

Miles 13.1-14 (No pictures for mile 13.1-25, this was a very dark time in my life...lmao)

Mile 15-18

I sat on the curb to cry and stretch. Hot. Irritable. Cursing. Prayers. Laughs. Dancing. Fussin’. I wanted to be naked because my clothes hurt. I felt all the compression in my CW-X tights, my bra felt like it was too little, and my hydration vest felt like it weighed 20 pounds. I got a cramp, ate salt, and trotted to catch up with Brandi and Stella. 

Miles 19-22

The dumbest shit ever! The turn around point was sooooooooo freakin’ far. As we were making our way into mile 20-something-ish, we see the RnR course officials make a couple of participants cut their course short and cross over to head back. I felt bad for them. I think this freaked Brandi out because she started talking about the time, why they were turned around…blah…blah…blah. I was already irritated so this didn’t help. I reassured Brandi and Stella that they could go ahead because I was not worried about my time and I did not have anymore run left; what I had left was for the finish line. Brandi said something like “I ain’t going nowhere!” Don’t quote me, but it was something like that…lol We were on each other’s nerves, but never left each other. Poor Stella, she prayed a lot…lol

Mile 23

I had a little more energy and felt excited; I knew all I had was a 5k and I would be finished. I could see a woman ahead of us who seemed to be going through one of the many emotions I had experienced during several points during the race. Her stride was slow and I heard someone say to her “you can do it.”  As I got closer to her, she was crying, her name was Shontell. Shontell asked “where’s the van, are we going to make it?” I reassured her that the van was far behind us, but we needed to keep our current pace. I told her, that we only had 3 more miles. Shontell picked her stride to match mine and we walked and I kept talking to encourage her.

24-25

Shontell was still with me, people cheered, kids gave me wild flowers.

25.5-26.2

I left Shontell. I activated the run I had stored to run across the finish line. I finished. 6:56:08. I never worried about my time; not because I felt confident that I would beat the cutoff, I simply did not care.

Kiss the baybee!

The Jacket!

The Bib. The Shirt. The Medal

 

So, there it is, my #EpicShit #OneAndDone #26.2 #RnRNOLA