5 Miler in the Book

I did it. I ran the whole five miles of my part of our marathon relay. My team finished its 26.2 miles in 4:16:22. We were hoping to finish in 4 hours so we were pretty close. 

It seemed to take me forever to drive up. I had to drop Peanut Butter off at her Nana's and then go up from there. I think I was in the car for over 6 hours total. My hips were aching by the time I got there since they are already sore from running. I picked up our race packet and met my teammates to get our game plan. We decided to meet at 6:30 am and get to the start. I set my alarm on my phone, but where I was staying has poor cell reception so my phone searches for a signal and kills my battery. I heard it die and it was 5:00 am. I wanted 30 more minutes of sleep and there was this clock that chimed every 15 min. I heard it after the first 15 and didn't hear it again. I looked at the clock on the wall and it was 6:00, yikes. I quick showered, for reasons unknown since I was going to go sweat, and beat feet to our meeting spot. We headed out to the start of the race and my friend Jill started. A friend of hers, Jason,  from high school that I also know ran our second leg and the other 3 of us went to cheer him on since we couldn't watch Jill. After cheering we headed to the start of the 3rd leg. I was still feeling good at this point, it was still cool and I was still relaxed. But after meeting back up with Jill and Jason and my leg being next, I started stressing, can I do this, I can do this, good lord what did I sign up for. Caroline ran our third leg and we went to wait for mine.

This is me and Brent who ran our last, longest and fastest leg waiting at the start of my leg. I got ready for the switch and I heard, "Robyn?" I said, "oh hey." it was one of my best friends from high school's parents. They were like we haven't seen you in a long time. I said I know, I don't get up a lot.  And then Caroline came in and I was off and wouldn't you know it my right shoe felt weird, I though crap, just run with it, and then I turned the corner and the behemoth hill loomed ahead. I charged the hill and my crew drove by yelling on their way to the next split. After mile 1, I was not in my normal run mental mode, I was so worried about finishing and it started to get really sunny and hot and that is all I thought about. The shirts we wore just held the sweat and I couldn't get my sleeves to stay up, I was uncomfortable and just kept plugging along. I stopped to retie my shoes and just kept plodding along. I caught up to a group of 4 full marathoners who were walking/running. I said finally someone I can pass. I think it took me a mile and a half to actually pass them. I hit mile 19 and was so happy to only have a mile left, but it was a long ass mile. I finally saw Caroline and said, "How much further is it?" She said just around the bend. I'm like kick ass and begin to "sprint" to get this over with and I turn the curve to this awful hill. But I climb it and send Brent on his way.

According to the split times it took me an hour and ten minutes to run my five, which is really slow 14 minute miles. I walk 15 minute miles  and I ran this whole thing. My mom says the split times aren't always accurate and of course I forgot to wear a watch.

Here's my team at the finish:

After it was all done, everyone felt great and then some were talking crazy like, we should find a 6th and next year do 3 half marathon relay teams. Um, yeah, not quite ready for that yet, nearly died doing the 5 miles.

Stay tuned to my next post, things that only happen in Hurley.