The Half Marathon didn't turn out quite like I had thought it would. In fact, I only walked 10 miles. If you can do math, you know that a half marathon is 13 miles. Let me start at the beginning.
The half marathon was to start at Husky Stadium. The "plan" was you were supposed to park at the finish line, and they were going to shuttle people to the starting line. Sherrie and I got to Bellevue early - within time to get on a shuttle and get to the finish line. There were about 100 or so people in line when they announced that the last shuttle had left. That we could either book across the lake to "maybe" get to the start OR we could wait an hour and they'd shuttle us to the second half of the marathon to walk. Ridiculous! The WHOLE reason we were walking in this darn thing was to walk across the floating bridge.
Blueberry got in the Stang and we flew. They had delayed the start of the race to be at 7:15AM. We got on the freeway at 7:10. We hit Husky Stadium at 7:22 - yah, I flew. We parked and ran to the starting line, just as they were closing it down. The race guy said, "You two are the last two...go." So we booked across the Montlake bridge to 520 Floating bridge. The best part, we had a police escort. They stayed about a car length behind us. We we were booking like I've never booked. Oh I forgot to say when we got in the Stang to head across to the stadium, I had to pee. Oh boy did I. When we got there they wouldn't let us. So the first 4 miles it was the thought of a honey bucket that kept me going.Blueberry and I were hauling. My shin splints were on fire, my legs were hurting, but dammit we were walking across that damn bridge.
We hit mile 4 water hole - keep in mind we were dead last - and the line for the bathroom was 20 minute long. So I stood in line and stretched and got to pee.
Then we were off again. We were doing well. The heat was coming on, but I felt like I was hydrating well. Then it hit me, I hadn't had time to eat my breakfast. Oh god. But now I was so tired and hot, I couldn't even think about eating. And yet, I managed to choke down a half of a bagel.
We hit milepost 5 and 6 and were doing great. Hit mile post 7 and that was the breast cancer supporting milepost, so we stopped to take a photo. Then we were on. Just past this awesome mile we hit THE HILL FROM HELL. I was going to take it slow no matter what. And suddenly we looked behind us and there were three people and that stalker the police car. Half way up this 1/2 mile hill, I stopped to take a breather. I bent down to put my hands on my knees and I felt my eyes roll back into my head and felt like I was going to pass out. Started waving back and forth and some how managed to stay on two feet. We get to the top of this flippin' hill and the police are behind us and these three other people. The three people consisted of a 76 year old, a 68 year old and a woman who was about 60 I would guess. Fantastic people. They were so friendly and so fun to walk with. And the more we walked the more pissed we got that we were being rushed by the police. According to Seafair we had the course until 1pm and it was only 10:30 ish. We had plenty of time. Jerks!
Then we hit mile 8. At mile 8 my right thigh muscle knotted up and cramped like I've never felt anything cramp before. My god. I couldn't barely stand on the damn thing. So I hopped in the back of the Seafair car and stretched it out. The cops had given up on us and we were only be followed by the official seafair car. I sat in the car for a mile or so when we came head to head to a truck picking up the cones that marked the route. WHAT! It wasn't even 11 am yet and they were picking up the cones. So I hopped out of the car and started walking with the 3 folks we had been with from like mile 6. Then we realized we had no idea where the hell we were going.
Oh and what about Blueberry? When I hopped in the car, she put herself into high gear and took off. Our plan was to meet at the finish line.
So I hopped out and walked a mile to the park which was where we started the morning. We had no idea where the route went so we couldn't go any further. We decided to walk across the park to the finish line anyhow. F*uck em was our attitude. The one lady was fired up. We were both pissed that they had screwed up the race from the first thing this morning. When we started we were effectively 30 minutes behind the ENTIRE race.
We walked across the park and through the finish line. Then I stood there and waited about 15 minutes for Blueberry to walk through. So while I didn't walk all 13 miles and ended up only walking 10.2 or so, I still felt like I had achieved a half marathon. Had they not screwed it up in the beginning I totally would have walked the whole way. But the combination of 1) no breakfast, 2) starting 30 minutes late 3) waiting 20 minutes for a bathroom and 4) walking faster than ever the first 4 miles...I totally would have made it.
Oh but the best part, by the time we crossed the finish line, they were out of medals! Ugh! So Seafair will be sending us our medals, and I will be sending Seafair a piece of my mind in the form of a letter.
2 comments:
Ugh! That is awful that they were cleaning up the route early! How did they expect you to know where to go? Jerks indeed.
I think it is so cool that you did this! You ROCK!!! I keep saying I'd love to walk a half marathon, just to say I did it. I should probably start with a 5k, I suppose, but someday, I will also check this off my list!
Leave it to Jenn to make it! :-) I heard about the problems, and yup, definitely write that letter. For people that have trained, planned, and paid to participate, you'd think they'd have done a better job.
WTG for doing the almost half marathon :-)
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