The Race . . .

Ok, now in your head start singing "da da da da da.. da, da da da da da." Picture Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold running towards Wally World. OR, you can hear the Rocky theme song cresendoing in the background...

Either way, Laurie and I ROCKED our 1/2 marathon in Bozeman. It was on Sunday the 23rd... and it happened to also be Laurie's Birthday. What way to ring in another year of being a hot, cool, rockin woman! If you haven't see Laurie- you should - she's what we call a M.I.L.F.

The day started at 6am. I woke up early enough so I could have a little power snack, drink a lot of water and a little bit of coffee. Then of course, move around the house a bit and make sure I had enough time to "do my business." That was hands down my worst nightmare for the race... Didn't want any suprises on mile 8 if you know what I mean.

Laurie and I drove over to Bozeman where we met up with the 250 other runners. They shuttled us on buses to the starting line. We waited just long enough to get a bit nervous and anxious.
As I looked around I was amazed at the different profiles of people running! There were 75 year old men and women that looked amazing and they of course had on pins or shirts of other runs that they have done. I was sitting there hoping that in FIVE years I can do this again, not to mention 40! There were even some fairly large men that looked pregnant out there stretching and
warming up!

We started out great. We were weaving in and out of folks, passing people, feeling really good and energized. When we passed mile three I realized we were running a steady 8 minute mile...
Wow! Didn't expect that- we had been running a consistent 10 minute mile unless we were running downhill, and we were feeling good.

Laurie's husband Mike brought her 2 boys over to cheer us on at various parts of the course. They were so cute! I almost cried the first time we saw them. These boys have the sweetest, biggest, most sincere grins you've ever seen and when they saw their mom turn a corner and wave at them they started bouncing up and and down like little Bopples (remember those toys from the 80's?), anyways, their enthusiasm was great and after every 3rd mile or so, there they were, calling out "happy birthday mommy!" "way to go" "hi brooke, hi mom!" "good job." Caid even ran with us for a few minutes.

Now to back up, Laurie and I have been training for a while now and her boys always see us leave to go running and when we leave or sometimes during the day, they make beleive that they are "Brooke and Laurie" and they "run" for a game. They often switch off who gets to be Brooke and who gets to be Laurie... SO cute!

So, we were doing great, pacing ourselves, nothing hurt too bad, never felt too winded. At about mile 7 - 8 we felt like our legs weighed about 1,000lbs., but we pulled through, told a few funny stories to take our minds off the heavy legs and befor we knew it, we could see the MSU football stadium where the race was to end and I realized- WE HAD DONE IT! By the way, Mic- I borrowed the gatorade story - it seemed perfectly appropriate and worked like a charm.

Now to many, 13.1 miles is not that big of deal, especially when you live in the SW Montana region where every other person you see is hyper toned and beautiful, some super-athlete straight from some Iron Man competition, but to me it was a real and attainable goal that took discipline, mental and a bit of physical strength. I was beyond relieved to turn that last corner and see... Marni and Loni Waters, my future cousins-in-law. The sweethearts came out in the drizzling rain and cheered Laurie and I on to the finish line! That was the moment I really wanted to cry (and kind of did).

The most brutal part of the race was that you had to do 1 whole lap around the track before you finished, so you have to actually PASS the finish line and then run back to it again around the track. That last little bit you have to keep runnign while you are watching those who have finished eating their muffins and drinking their water.

So, we did it and we were tired, we took naps when we got home, soaked the creaking hips, knees and legs in the hot-tub (oh, and I barfed).

We are looking forward to keeping up the training and who knows a full 26 mile marathon? Not so sure... As Laurie said, that is like talking to woman that just gave birth if she would like to give birth to twins in a few months!
(as soon as I get pics, I will post them... )

Are you still singing Rocky? "You can throw Gatorade on me now, mom."