A few months ago, Kevin came up to me and said, "Why did I make friends?" I laughed and asked him why, and he said that a group of guys from our ward were running in a relay race and asked him to join their team, and he said yes. Well, only a few days later, my friend, Erica asked me if I would join the girl's team. I haven't done any kind of race since I ran the 100 meter dash in the Jesse Owens games 34 years ago, and so I was a bit hesitant of saying yes, but Erica is very convincing. And the fact that it was in Corpus Christi and Kevin was already participating - and the fact that she said I could even walk my 4.2 miles if I wanted, and I found myself saying yes! Ahh!
And so after months of walking/jogging around the neighborhood to train, it was finally race weekend. We carpooled down to Corpus, and then met up for dinner at a fun pizza place to "carb load" - but do you really need to carb load if you are only running four miles? Oh well, I really enjoyed my bacon cheesy pasta and Kevin loved his pizza fries. So yummy!
After dinner, we got checked into our hotel and most of our group headed down to the beach to play in the water for a while. I stayed at the hotel, as it had not only been a very busy day, but a very busy week, and I was completely exhausted, and so I chose to read my book for a bit. Kevin also stayed back, but he was in the guys room and was watching baseball - ha ha!
That night, we also all got our stuff ready for the next day, since some of our group would be starting at 4am. I got my number attached to my shirt, attempted to get some sleep, and tried to sleep through the three ladies that had to wake up extra early and who were actually super quiet. Before I knew it, the sun was up and I was getting ready. I had to leave by 7:30am to get to the bus stop.
Meanwhile, the first legs of our teams had already begun. The race began with five miles on the beach - glad it was Barbara and Steve and wasn't me running on the sand for five miles ;). After that, Richard and Erica were ready to take over and run leg #2.
Leg three was the bridge run, and that was Kevin and Sharon's turn. That bridge was pretty gigantic, and it was pretty hot, but luckily for them, there were plenty of shady places for them to wait to run.
Kevin passed the baton to our bishop and friend, Brent Fisher. Kevin was so happy to be done! Sharon passed our baton to Stephanie, which meant that I was up next.
And hallelujah, I was so ready to be done waiting. I got to my station at 8 am, and it was very hot, no shade, and the only place to sit was on the dirt or on broken pieces of road along the beach. Luckily, I did have a beautiful view of the bay. I hung out with my leg partner, Tyler, but he was quiet, and was gone almost an hour before I got to head out. In fact, I had to wait in the hot sun with very little water to drink for three hours. Not ideal, that is for sure - ha ha!
When Stephanie passed me the baton, I so incredibly relieved to start my 4.2 miles. It was hot, the first water station wasn't until 2.5 miles in, and I may have started my run already dehydrated and overheated (I mean, I didn't sweat, which is not a good sign - ha ha!), but I had my awesome running playlist, and I just kept going. I would find someone ahead of me that I would try to eventually pass, and I would also run the first part of each new song, and then I would speed walk until the next song.
When I was finished, I had killed my PR, dropping time off of every mile, averaging 12.5 minutes a mile, which was awesome! I was so happy with how I did. After I passed the baton to Bella, I walked around searching for water, and I found a medical tent where they handed me an ice cold Gatorade and put ice cold wet towels on my shoulders and lap. I sat there and didn't ever want to move again.Bella had taken over for me, but the guys, who were ahead of us, had already switched from Tyler to Shane, Sharon's husband.
Erica was able to pick me up from my station, which was great, and as we made our way to our hotel at the finish line, we drove right past Bella, running the final leg.
I was able to sneak into our hotel room and quickly shower, even though it was technically past check out time, and then I headed back over to the finish line to wait for Bella. I was so proud of our team! (And yes, since I didn't want to put my wet shirt back on - even it was only wet because of the ice towels - I just put it up in front of me for the picture - ha ha!) We also got a picture with both of our teams together with our medals on (Tyler had already had to leave). Oh, and I was starving, so I was very happy to get my free slice of pizza.
Before we knew it, we were back on the road and headed home to San Antonio, but this time Kevin and I rode with Brent, so he wouldn't have to go alone. It was definitely an adventure, and although Kevin and I both agree that we will never do this type of race again, however, if there was ever a 5K fun run type of thing, where we would all start in the morning and could run with our friends (instead of being separated from them the entire day and waiting for hours in the sun for our turn to run). Or better yet, if they decide to do this again, we will come hang out with our friends, and then play golf while they run the race ;). Good times!