White Rock 2011

After I finished the White Rock Marathon in 2005, I vowed to NEVER run another one. Thankfully I crossed then finish line (in 4 hours and 39 minutes) but it was quite possibly the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. Giving birth to Anna was even easier! So when some of my girlfriends convinced me that it would be "fun" to run the White Rock Marathon Relay, I said yes. It was only 5 miles and I thought surely I could run that. My friend Summer and I ran a handful of times along the Katy Trail with Anna in her stroller for probably no more than 3-4 miles and we considered those few runs our training sessions. We all met at Jill's house at 6:45 in the morning on December 4 and her sweet dad dropped us off at Fair Park to begin the race. It was really cold outside and was threatening to rain. We grabbed some free ponchos and gloves and power bars and started to get ready for the race.

I was the lead off runner so after the other 4 girls boarded buses to get to their locations, I found my way to the starting line. There were tens of thousands of runners so trying to squeeze your way into the starting lineup was a little challenging. We were essentially starting on the DART railway so thousands of people were crammed into a lane that was no larger than 15 yards wide. I somehow got stuck in with the marathon pack that was training to run it in 3 hours and 15 minutes but there was no way I could fight my way back to the slower folks so once the horn sounded, off I went. We had been running for probably 15 minutes and the threatening rain became a torrential downpour. It was raining buckets and every inch of me was soaking wet. I had discarded the poncho right before the race since it wasn't raining yet = stupid move! All the runners were absolutely soaking wet and there was no use to avoid potholes that were small ponds since our shoes were soaking wet, our hair soaking wet and our clothes soaking wet. Thankfully I finished the five miles pretty quickly since I had to keep up with the fast runners and was SO thankful to "pass the baton" to the next relay person on our team.

I had Keith pick me up a few blocks away from where I finished and he had warm clothes for me which was quite a relief since at this point I was soaking wet. Off we headed so I could take a warm shower and a nap before meeting up with the rest of my team. It would have been a nightmare to meet up with the girls at the finish line so they got a picture without me. Poor things had been in the pouring rain for hours and hours waiting for each person to finish their leg. Summer said she's never been colder in her life and she was the last runner and miserable.

Hooray for us!

We met up for a celebratory margarita at Mi Cocina to celebrate finishing the race. Yes we even wore our medals into the restaurant. It was pretty tough to run those 5 miles but we did it. I was one day shy of 30 and already feeling my new age!!