I did it!

That's right, I did it!  I finished the race.  I went, I saw, and I conquered.  And it didn't come easy either.

Preface:  I got hardly any sleep the night before.  Not for a lack of trying either.  I originally tried going to bed at 8:30 p.m., especially since we had the girls in the same room as us.  But the girls were much too excited about all of us sleeping together, that by the time we all fell asleep, it was closer to 10:00 p.m..  The second thing I learned?  Kiara is a bed hog.  I have no clue how my 2 year old found a way to take over the full size bed we were sharing, but she managed to do that in style.  I spent most of the night sleeping on the edge of the bed.  But that wasn't the worst thing.  At 12:30 a.m. I awoke due to people running up and down the stairs which our motel room was conveniently located right next to.  This was followed by loud male voices, yelling at each other.  I remember looking at my cell phone (my clock) every half an hour after that as the noise continued.  Until of course, the final straw.  At 3:30 a.m., I heard a banging on the door next to our room, followed by, "Sheriff's Department!  Open up!"  which lasted 10 minutes because the people inside refused to open the door.   I didn't fall back asleep until 4 am. and then I woke up at 5:20 a.m. so that I could get ready and catch the bus leaving at an adjacent hotel at 6 a.m.  Groan.

Now to the race.

It started off great.  Teresa and I kept a nice even pace going while I watched mile after mile pass by.  I remember thinking to myself, "This is easy. We have this."  Yes, I even felt that way as we headed up Corkscrew Hill between miles 6-7.  I knew there was going to be a steep incline, but nothing could have prepared me for what we encountered.  It was a lot more steep than I could have imagined!  When we passed by mile marker 8, I remembered feeling great, and not tired at all... little did I know that only a mile later I would be feeling completely different.

It was at mile 9 that I felt my left calf start to tweak.  By that I mean that it felt like I was about to get a charley horse.  I know the feeling... I've spent most of my adolescent and adult life with them.  The intense pain in my calf that I spent many nights waking up to felt like it was on the verge of happening.  Before mile 10, my right calf felt that way too.

I should have figured this would happen.  A week ago, when I ran 10 miles, my calves started giving out on me at 9.5 miles and I had to walk the last .5 mile of that run.  Nevertheless, I continued to run, but my pace started to slow dramatically.  I was disappointed, but I knew that I couldn't speed back up.  Everytime I did, my calves threatened to wreak havoc, and I knew if that happened, the likelihood of me finishing would be slim to none.  I almost felt my calves pull 10-15 times in the last four miles. I told my sister to go on ahead without me.  I was holding her back.  She was adamant though, that we started this journey together and that we going to finish it together too.  What would I do without my sister?  I love her!

My jog continued up until mile 13.  I was so CLOSE to finishing... just .1 mile left.  This is where I was supposed to be sprinting to the finish.  Instead, it was at this very moment that my left quad, just above my knee severely cramped, and I could no longer jog.  I winced with pain, and tears fell.   I remember feeling so disappointed.  I felt like I failed myself and my sister.  This wasn't how I imagined my finish to be.  I didn't feel tired, but my legs were giving up on me.  I stopped on the side of the course, where Teresa helped me to stretch for about a minute.  But as I started to move forward again, I realized that I couldn't even really walk.  So instead I limped, my arm threaded through my sisters as she helped support me.  As we came to the last 100 yards, she helped me jog in to the finish, where I crossed the line with her beside me.

Words can't really describe my feeling of accomplishment despite the problems that I've encountered along the way.  And while my victory is bittersweet, I am glad that I had this experience, that I finished what I set out to do, and was committed to it until the very end. 

And the results are in... here is how I finished:

Bib

FName

LName

City

State

Div

Leg1

Leg2

Pace

2730

Pamela

Zarate

Selma

CA

25-29 Female

Age	Sex	ChipTime	ClockTime	Overall	SexPl	DivPl
29	F	2:25:35.9	2:26:40.6	1400	887	173