The Great Race

Today I ran 13.1 miles with my best friend in the Country Music Half Marathon. In spite of the pain, I'd have to say it was a very good experience. We left home about 5:20 a.m., parked near the finish line about 6 a.m., caught a shuttle to the start line, stopped at an indoor facility, found some free coffee (about 1/4 cup) and cookies, made our way to the start line, waited only five minutes, and got started a little after 7 a.m.
The weather was perfect for a run: low 60's and overcast. It was raining when we left home and as the race began, but it was light and sporadic. There was some mud and a few puddles in the streets. I had a Clif bar on the way and no caffeine until the coffee sample. At mile 6 I ate one Gu and another one at mile 9. I ran slowly with my buddy the first 4 1/2 miles, then jogged and walked the rest of the course. I'd intended to walk the whole thing, and thought I'd be lucky to finish in less than four hours. With him egging me on, we both finished in three hours, eleven minutes! If I'd started where the race planners had put me, I'd have started an hour after the first runners started. However, my "running coach" had permission to stand in the 2nd corral, so I stood up there with him, thus getting almost an hour head start.
I got a whole different perspective of the race than I've had in the past. I got to see the front runners and a lot more spectators than I saw in 2004 and 2007. My legs are hurting now because I'm out of practice running, but the actual run was not that hard -- except for when my knee hurt or quads were aching. I think a couple of days of rest will help a lot. I'm really pretty excited that I was able to finish that quickly. It was inspirational to be with the runners rather than the walkers. I saw more young, energetic folks actually moving on. Although I was one of the slowest ones, I put forth more effort because I was surrounded by them.
When we finished, they gave us a medal and lots of food. I limped to the car and had to do some stretches, but I will always remember the day that my finely tuned athlete could not run and decided to walk with me. You see, the only reason he was beside me is because the doctor told him that he has some torn cartilage in his knee and he should run slowly today. It was his first time to do the Half instead of the whole Marathon. He was seeing different scenery than he usually sees at this race, too, because he's usually finished in half that time and usually goes twice that far. He barely broke a sweat. Because he naturally goes a lot faster than me, this is probably the only time that I'll ever get to do a race with him by my side. I tried extra hard to go as fast as possible, and I'm really inspired to know that my body can do that without training. It makes me want to train some and do it right next time.