Iki Express: St. Jude Marathon Weekend

Holla!!!!

Raise your hand if you ran a half marathon over the weekend. THESE GIRLS DID!!!!! And they rocked it.

Okay now that you know how the story ends, let me tell you how it began!

On Thursday during lunch, I met Kristi and Bex up at Cook Convention Center in Memphis to pick up our packets and visit the Expo. One reason I wanted to go on Thursday as soon as it opened was to get to the $10 man early. $10 man sells tons of running clothes and everything is only $10. Unfortunately, much to my own shock and terror, the $10 man was a vast disappointment this year (unlike last year’s $10 man, where I totally racked up). All the women’s stuff was NOT cute, and I didn’t feel like standing in line for a boring necessity like socks or a sports bra.

So we just browsed around the expo, and I did buy a pack of GU Chomps for race day, but that was it. I also went by the Pace Team booth to get some information. My experience last year (starting out way too fast and feeling horrible the majority of the way) made me consider sticking with a pace group this year. You don’t have to do anything to join a pace group…just start out in the same corral as the pacer you choose, and try to stay with them the entire time. They run the entire race at a steady pace, not stopping for bathroom breaks or water. If you need to do either of those things, you certainly can, but you just have to catch up with your pace group afterwards.

After meeting some Official Pacers at the expo, I decided to give it a shot on race day. Couldn’t hurt. We left with the most important thing…the main thing we came for…our race number! Bex and Kristi VERY excited to be running our beloved race in less than 2 days! Friday after work, we all met in Memphis to spend the weekend. One great thing about this particular race is that my mom was able to come! I was so excited to have her there as my cheerleader and photographer.

A good friend of ours in Tunica owns a gorgeous condo on downtown Memphis, that is just blocks from the start and finish lines. She was generous enough to let us stay there for the weekend it was SO PERFECT.Not only was it absolutely breathtaking, it was convenient and comfortable.Seriously, these views are like nothing I’ve seen before! We pretended like we were City Princesses all weekend long! Friday night we ate at Capriccio Grill at the Peabody and I am not even going to go into detail about it because it was nothing to write about. The food was just okay, and it was overpriced and the service was not great. It was like they didn’t get the memo that an extra 15,000 people were going to be in town that weekend. No biggie…I just wouldn’t recommend it.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early and READY TO RUN! I don’t have any pictures of the start line or the race course because I don’t run with a camera. Sorry but you guys don’t pay me enough to take pictures while I run.

We headed out the door at 7:30 and walked to the start line. We were there by 7:36. I told you we were close! I found the 2:20 pace group in corral 11 and waited patiently for our turn to cross the start line. I chose the 2:20 group because I ran this race in 2:24 last year and was itching to PR.

By 8:15 we were crossing the Start line and already having a great time! I could tell within the first few minutes that I was going to feel good and finish well, and was just looking forward to a fun day.

The weather could not have been more perfect, and the 2:20 pace group felt like they were keeping a very comfortable pace for me (around 10:40/mile). For the first few miles I chatted with some girls in the same group, running the full marathon (shooting to finish in 4:40). They were three college friends who graduated from Southern Miss together. I didn’t get their names, but the main girl I talked to was very sweet and talking with her made the first 30 minutes or so go by really quickly!

Around mile 5, the course passes the St. Jude Hospital. The patients come out in their wheelchairs with signs and music blaring. I almost busted out crying at this point, seeing all the kids come out and cheer us on. It makes you realize that if these children are strong enough to go through what they do, I am certainly strong enough to run for a couple of hours in their honor.

I was still feeling really good at this point, and sticking with my pace group. After the hospital, there is a loooooong straight-away that really got to me last year. This year, I felt great! I could tell my training this year was much more effective, and just cruised along. Reading signs, waving at toddlers, seeing lots of doggie spectators…it went by much more quickly than last year when I was in a lot of pain.

I stopped and ate some GU Chomps and some water at mile 7. Only walked enough to get down the water and loosen my legs a little. It took about .15 of a mile. At mile 8, I noticed that the course was running pretty long. When I crossed the 8 mile mark, my watch said 8.2. This was the case last year so I wasn’t surprised.

At mile 9, they were handing out GU so I grabbed one and downed it. walking for about .2 of a mile. At this point I was starting to feel the effects of running faster than what I was used to. Most of my training runs were at an 11:00+ pace, and I was sticking with my pace group and hitting a little under a 10:40 pace. But by the time I reached 10, I kept telling myself I only had a 5K left, and the miles seemed to click by. Around 10.75, Bex passed me! She was going pretty fast, and I could see her family not too far up ahead. Right before mile 11, I waved at Bex’s husband, Baby Bex, and her dad as they cheered me on. It was fun seeing someone I knew on the race course. At the mile 11 water station, I ate the rest of my GU Chomps.

By 11.5 I will honestly say I was hurting. I was counting down the minutes at this point, and was kind of worrying if I would make my goal. My breathing felt fine, but my legs were like lead, and my back was bothering me a little. I slowed waaaaaaay down…like to a 14:00 minute mile for a little bit. I was practically walking, but I didn’t stop!By 12.75 I really didn’t think I had much left, and at one point I felt like I was going to throw up and cry at the same time. My stomach felt weird…not a feeling I have felt before during a run. I think I might have had too much fuel, and maybe the GU/Powerade combo just wasn’t agreeing with me.

Although my stomach was bothering me, I knew at this point I could make my goal so I just powered through, and I’m sure I made some weird crying/groaning/huffing-and-puffing noises as I did. But I didn’t care. I just gave it all I had and my watch hit 13.1 at 2:17:04!!!!!

WOOOO-HOOOOO! No time to celebrate now, though…I still had about a quarter of a mile to go to the finish line, and every joint from my waist down was throbbing with pain. Remember I mentioned the course was long. When my watch was at 13.1, and I felt I had made my goal, I walked. I was so tired. I was dead. My legs had a mind of their own, like I could barely control them. I wasn’t feeling good.

I was on the verge of tears when I heard a voice behind me say, “Come on, pick it up, we can do it!” I turned to my left and another runner…a stranger…was encouraging me to keep running. When I looked over at her she said, “I know you can, come on!”

Then I heard a voice to my right… “Don’t give up! Come on, I’ll run you in!” Another stranger…a spectator this time, with two children in a double stroller was encouraging me to keep running.

So I did.

I ran down the ramp and into center field of AutoZone park, and before I knew it, I was crossing the finish line with my (brand new) friend beside me. I 100% believe that God sent me those girls to get me across the finish line in one piece AND with a smile on my face. I have no idea who the girls were who encouraged me to the finish line because I lost them in the crowd, but if you’re out there…and reading this….you made me day!! I did get a chance to say, “thank you for helping me!” quickly to one of the girls but didn’t get to tell her how much I appreciated her kind words. It was so awesome to have that encouragement from two people I didn’t know…and as far as I could tell didn’t know each other.

Overall, I am really happy with how this race went. I trained well, and accomplished my goal. However, I think I was hurting towards the end because I didn’t train as fast as I raced. If you want to race fast, you have to train fast. Moving forward I will work on my speed in hopes that for my next race I’ll not only finish within my goal, but finish feeling like I could run another mile or so. I should also mention that my official finish time was 2:19:something, and my watch read 13.33 when I crossed the finish line. So even though the course was long, I accomplished my goal of finishing in under 2:20!!!

Bex was right there at the finish line, having finished just 3 minutes before me. We got our medals together and went into the stands to find my mom and wait on Kristi. We guzzled water and chocolate milk while we waited on Kristi to finish. And look who else we ran into! Our friend Abby! This was her first half-marathon and she finished with flying colors!!! So glad she found us in the crowd. Shortly after that, Kristi crossed the finish line crying like a baby! Ahahahahha….love it. Her first half-marathon also and she rocked it. As soon as she saw us she said, “Where’s my mom!?!” Ahahahah…too funny. Luckily, we were able to quickly find Kristi’s parents, sisters, and kids in the crowd. Kristi’s son Sutton started laughing and shrieking when he saw his mommy! And I love this picture of Kristi and her mini-me, Lydia. So cute! We visited with Kristi’s family for a bit before heading out into the sunshine to warm up and stretch a little. After drinking about a gallon of water (literally, I drank 4 20-ounce bottles of water in about 40 minutes), we hobbled back to the condo to freshen up for lunch. Before we left for lunch, I forced everyone up on the roof garden of the building so we could see this gorgeous view! I thought it was a pretty good reward for our efforts of the morning. And yes, we wore our medals to lunch. Love this picture….TUNICA REPRESENT! And we can’t forget our lovely equipment manager/cheerleader/photographer of the weekend! So glad she was there to share such a special and fun accomplishment with us. Per Kristi’s recommendation, we ate at the Kooky Canuck for lunch and oh. my. word. Best post-race food ever.

Yes, those are fried pickles.

And yes, those are french fries covered in cheese and gravy. That’s just how we roll in the south….we deep fry our vegetables and then cover them in gravy.

Don’t judge.

Staying downtown, and being able to walk everywhere this weekend gave me a new appreciation for Memphis. I know it gets a bad rap sometimes, but we loved it and never felt unsafe or worried about our whereabouts. If you’re in the right area of town, you can really enjoy the city and have fun.

If you’re familiar with downtown Memphis, you know they have horse drawn carriages all over the place, and most of them have dogs as co-pilots. I especially loved this old Golden! Look at that sweet face…he’s been around the block a few times….literally. And the city looked so cute all decorated for Christmas! After lunch Kristi and Bex had to head back to Tunica, but my mom and I stayed Saturday night as well. I napped all afternoon and around 6pm we headed out for a delicious dinner at Flight Restaurant. If you are ever in Memphis, you must try it. It will change your life.

After dinner, we decided to be fancy and have an after-dinner drink on the roof top. But we got up there and it was so windy we could hardly stand up. We could barely breath we were laughing so hard.