Ain't No Mountain High Enough

If you hate when I blog about running (Jeff and Scott, you evil, unsupporting brothers), you might just as well tune out now. Because here it is--my first race after having Queenie!

It all began Friday morning as we loaded the Pilot and headed south to Agoura Hills (near Thousand Oaks and Malibu). The drive was 'meh', due to lots of whining from Smidget, tattling from Chatterbox, and intermittant angry screeches from Queenie, who was feverish and none too fond of the car seat. A lunch stop at In-N-Out where I tried an animal style burger for the first time and subsequently wondered what all the hype is about, and we arrived at our packet pick-up. My friend Mandy's family had caravaned with us (showing us up with their brand-spankin' new, shiny white Pilot) and we went in to get our race numbers, goodie bags, and t-shirts. With that out of the way, we headed to the hotel

At the Homewood Suites, we unloaded. Queenie had a long nap while the dads and other kids went swimming. Mandy and I tried to figure out dinner plans for 10 adults and 15 kids. Yeep! (There were 3 more families not-too-far behind us.) When Talli, Jamie and Angie's families arrived we headed to Macaroni Grill so we could have a nice, carbohydrate-laden dinner. I'll keep it short by saying that we were quite the show, what with all the little ones in tow. We all stopped at Sports Authority where a few of the girls (me included) bought visors we had forgotten and what Friday night would be complete without ice cream? We tried Pinkberry for the first time and THIS time I could understand all the hype. Yummeroo. We got to bed by 10:00 and I slept really well.

Up at 5:15 and wide awake, I nursed Queenie then got myself all dressed and ready for the race. Sport beans? Check. Sunglasses and visor? Check. GPS watch? Check. Number pinned on and D-tag on shoe? Check. You get the picture. Lots and lots of checking is involved in a race morning prep, because it absolutely stinks to forget anything. (I did end up forgetting sunscreen).

All the girls met up at 6:00 in the lobby for breakfast (small bagel and half a banana, in case you're wondering) and some chatting. Then we caught the hotel shuttle to Paramount Ranch, where our race would begin. We got there 40 minutes before gun-time and wished we would have driven so we could stay in the car with a heater on. It was 39 degrees and we were chilly!! We walked around and attempted to stay warm, but our toes and legs were numb by the time our (10 minute late) 7:40 start came around. The gun went off and we were ready! We waited to place ourselves toward the end of the pack, and the run began. It was a decent sized race, with about 2,000 runners, so the first couple of miles passed quickly, just trying to get past slower people without tripping anyone up. Not one mile into the race, we faced the first of a ridiculous number of hills.

Now let me just say right here that there had been some 'psych talk' about the alleged hills. Talli had seen online that there were a few nasty hills--particularly one where a person claimed they could barely get their car up. Another friend had driven our race the night before and warned that it was Tough. (Yes, with a capital T). I had my doubts and assumed these warnings were exaggerated.

I was dead wrong.

The Pacific Coast Half Marathon is beautiful and scenic. I'm really glad I did it once. But I will never do it again. The hills were incredibly difficult, physically and mentally. It was one hill after another. Sure, there were some downhills, but only because there were so many stinkin' uphills. And after your legs get worn completely out, even the downhill slopes are painful.

I had a goal to run the whole thing. That's always really my goal. Do my best, and don't stop running. I stopped running. I walked a whole lotta hills, particularly toward the end, because I could walk them not much slower than I could run them. And I was not alone. Every now and then you'd get someone running on those last hills, but where I was (in the 10.33/min crowd) most were walking them by the end.

3 of us--Mandy, Talli and I, ran as a group. We lost Mandy at a massive hill around 9 or 10 but Talli and I stuck together almost the entire time. My one regret as far as my personal race went is that I lost her after mile 12. We hit a hill that I couldn't mentally climb and I walked and let her run ahead. In the end, I was able to catch up but only because I pushed myself harder than I ever want to again. It was too hard. (Some of you are saying there is no "too hard" but I disagree). So we crossed the finish line together at 2 hours and 18 minutes. That sounds like a bad time, but trust me--on this course it was quite respectable. In fact, we were planning on 2 hours and 30 minutes without having seen the course, so we were thrilled.

It was no PR, but I am pretty sure there weren't too many PR's on this course. Tough. That's the best word for it. Talli and I agreed that we had to push harder on this race than our marathons--at least mentally. Every time you rounded a corner you saw another hill. D and the girls missed my finish line cross, too, so it all kind of rounded out to be just an okay race experience. I was really proud of myself for the accomplishment, but regretted dragging my family along since it didn't end up being a good time for them at all.

But it couldn't have been too bad because D and I have found a (flat) half marathon to run on May 2nd, so here we come!