Jig and Jog

We Did It!

Read my Disney Half Marathon Race Re-Cap here.

All of Team O’Dowd finished their respective marathon and half marathon, but let’s start from the beginning, shall we?

On Friday, my two running buddies and I each took a half day at work, so we were on the road to Phoenix around 12:45pm.  Our first stop was lunch at In-n-Out in Baldwin Park, which also happens to be the location of In-n-Out University.  Yes, such a thing exists. Who knew?

I went with my standard order (which I sadly, don’t eat very often because Travis hates In-n-Out,) the double double with fries.

Seriously, In-n-Out University.  Then, after some driving around in circles, because in Baldwin Park, you have to go west on the 10 to get to the eastbound 10 again (which doesn’t make any sense at all,) we were back on the road.

Around 7pm we made it to Quartzite and stopped for gas and bathroom break. Finally, about 9:30pm we made it to my cousin’s house, and after staying up for a bit to talk we were all ready for bed.  I got to sleep in my cousin’s son’s race car bed, which he promised would make me run faster.  The race car bed was insanely comfortable, seriously. I slept so well this weekend.

Sadly, I didn’t get any pictures from Saturday’s adventures, I forgot my camera at my cousin’s house   But, on Saturday, we ran some errands, went down to the Expo where we picked up our Bibs and I bought a new hat to wear.  We also sampled some stuff, like pasta, Gu products, Cliff Bars, The Stick (which I am currently regretting not purchasing,) and then had dinner at Sam’s Cafe in the Arizona Center (Tina and Mal also went there during their trip to Phoenix) I ordered the grilled tuna with wild rice and roasted vegetables. It was good, but the veggies were almost all peppers, which I tried to stay away from to avoid getting heart burn the night before the race.

We got home a little later than we had originally hoped, so all of us jumped right into bed and were asleep so we could be up at 4:30am.  We had decided to go over with my cousin (she ran the full marathon,) early to avoid having to worry about getting to the start area on time.  It was kind of cold, so I wore a hoodie, and gloves to check before we started the race.

After we waved Colleen (my cousin) off to her corral, we waited to meet my other cousin, Jen and her brother, Robert, before we had to get lined up for the half marathon.  We spent most of this time talking about how cold we were, and hoping about to stay warm.  We also spent this time using the really disgusting port-a-potties and getting nervous.  When it was finally time to line up we were actually all in line for potties, and had to haul to the corrals.  Thankfully we had plenty of time (I was in corral 21, and Jen and her brother stayed with me there.)  I will say, the starting process was a lot faster and more efficient than Disney.  Once we were moving I tried to stay with Jen and Robert, but lost them even  before the first mile marker.  I wanted to pace myself and was noticing that attempting to keep up with them was having me running 9 minute miles, which is WAY too fast for me.  So, I held back, and just focused on moving forward.  I was still cold, my toes were a little numb, but I knew soon enough I’d be warmed up.

Nothing too exciting happened during the course, and I have to admit, I was disappointed with the bands on the course.  None of them seemed that exciting, and some were even playing really slow tempo songs. The energy on the course really couldn’t match that on the Disney course, but that was ok, because this course was mostly flat, really.  The only other downside I would point out is that the 1/2 course wasn’t very scenic until we got to Tempe.  But, really, I was so focused on keeping a pace somewhere between 10:45 and 12:00 that I wasn’t looking around a whole lot.

I’m not going to lie, there were moments during this race when I was really having a tough time.  I stopped to stretch around mile 8, and at mile 9, I was starting to worry I might not beat my previous half marathon time of 2:59.  That really disappointed me, and I started trying to focus on simply doing better than 2:59.  Originally, I had hoped I could pull out a 2:30 half, knowing that a 29 minute difference was crazy. When I hit mile 10 at a little under 2 hours, I knew it might be possible if I really hauled ass to get close to that 2:30 goal.  I did still have some difficulty running, and had to take quite a few speed walking breaks to keep going.

Right before mile 13, I saw my Uncle Peter and that gave me that last push I really needed to get my ass in gear.  As I came up to the finish line I started sprinting and ended up crossing the finish line at 2:37:18, blowing my previous PR out of the water!  I shaved a whole 22 minutes off my last time!!

I was ECSTATIC!

After I finished, I found Janna (one of my running buddies, I finished a few seconds before her,) and our boss! Her family is in Phoenix, and she was going to be there this weekend anyway, so she stopped by, hoping to find us as we finished.  She’s got the pictures from right after since my camera was in my checked bag, but it was SO nice to see her.  I was on such a high, I could hardly feel anything, but my legs did hurt.  My hips, my knees and my legs were SO tight.  I tried to grab a banana, but they were all gooey, which kind of turned my stomach.  So I kept moving (because moving hurt less than stopping,) and grabbed a frozen yogurt.  After picking up our bags we headed to the beer garden to meet up with everyone else, took some pictures with our celebratory post=race beer and headed to my cousin Jen’s for a party.

Janna, myself, Courtney post-run!  Courtney finished in 1:57 and change. She is a rockstar

Janna, me, Courtney and my cousin Colleen (who finished her first marathon in 3:56!!!)

I spent almost the entire time at the post-race celebration eating a hamburger, drinking a beer, and sitting down.  It was so nice to catch up with a lot of my family.  My mom grew up in Phoenix and all but one of her 8 siblings still live there.  There was a great collection of family and it felt good to relax and celebrate with everyone.  After the party, we all went back to Colleen’s, got in the hot tub, showered and iced our knees.  It was another early to bed and then we were back on the road this morning around 9:30am.

Now for the official break down from the website:

My Garmin mile breakdowns are as follows:

Oh, and also, just because we could, we ate this on the way home. Because we earned it.

I’m still on a bit of a high. I’m so incredibly proud of myself.  I’m kind of convinced that the amount of consistent paced, treadmill runs I did really helped my speed for this race.  We’re already thinking about our races for the rest of the year.  June will be either San Diego or Seattle (I’ve got a wedding in June to plan around,) and definitely doing the Disney again in September.  We’re also planning on squeezing in some 5 and 10ks to keep us pumped up.