Five times 13.1

Welcome, LJS fans, to another edition of "half marathon post-mortem"! I'm your complainer-in-chief, LJS, and I'll be your host for these next thirteen miles...and then some.

Let me first mention how much lactic acid accumulation sucks ass. OK. There. It's said and done and I still can't walk down a flight of stairs without a grimace.

First, let me give major love to Lord Mullett who was roused from a peaceful slumber at 4:30 am to drive me and GM to the race. Thanks honey.

Onward with the program we go!

Pre-race: 2008 has been a long journey of blind ambition to desolation to resolution to accomplishment. It was simply enough to be there and to feel ready to run. It was a cold, dark morning in downtown Detroit. I woke up before 5am. A group of over 25,000 people gather in and it was so exciting.

Before the bridge are miles 0-3. I call them the innocent miles: This is the point where my body doesn't realize I'm about to ask it to run 13.1 miles. It is happy to just be out there running. Little does it know!
So things started off slow, it was about 6 minutes for our section to hit the start line. There were lots of people and we were all running in sync, so imagine thousands of heads bobbling at the same pace. It was cool. We got off to an easy pace and I felt good, aside from some tightness in my right leg. Energy was high and I really was just happy to be out there. The entertainment and fluid stations were great, as always.
The first mile marker is at mile 2. Now, runners are sort of an anal bunch when it comes to time. YES even for those like me who say they aren't. We are. We just try to lie about it. So, at mile 2, we're at a good starting pace.

Miles 3-6. Bah. These miles are so boring, with the exception of watching the sun rise over the Ambassador Bridge. Getting onto the bridge was slow because of construction. At mile 5, I noticed that our 'good starting pace' has lasted too long. It's pretty evident that we'll have to work harder to make up some time. Loaded up on Gu here.

Miles 7-9. These miles are sort of painful because you go from high energy to some weird la-la land of surviving. This stretch finishes our time in Windsor, we run under the water and make it back to Detroit. Here, I was starting to get tired. The tunnel was really warm and I took off one of my shirts. Big mistake because when we hit the surface, man it was cold. Our pace was better, and I was having fun. I wasn't feeling as wiped out as I usually do at this point in previous races, so I take that as a sign I did something right.

Miles 10-12. Oy. These are the miles when your body knows it can finish but your brain begins to revolt. Constant fighting between my body and mind. I knew on a body/cellular level that I was OK, I was trained for this and I can finish the distance. But my brain kept on telling me that I really should stop and sit down. Stupid brain! I just told myself to hang on. And, hopefully next time someone will tell the crowd "less cowbell".

Mile 13: Gosh, the only thing I really remember about this last stretch was a nice old man telling us "last turn, you can see the finish line". And we did. But it was sooooooo far away. Finishing the last 0.2 miles with people all around you and cheering you on is great. We saw Francis in the midst of all of those people, and it made me smile so much because this was my first race that I was running toward him because he was there. It was great, the first of many I hope!

Post-race: some hobbling around and trying to get hydrated and some nutrition.
Thanks again for a great run, GM. Next destination: MARS!
:D