1st Race report!!!!!! Half Marathon!!!

Susan, Me, Orlando


Team Racing for Recovery


Awards...yes we won that UGLY bag :)


What a day and after today I am SO ready to move somewhere WARM....I did the Glass City Marathon relay here in Toledo Ohio. Racing for Recovery sponsored me and my running partner Susan for the girls relay team and 2 guys Kevin and Orlando .... so we were there to represent Racing for Recovery!!! ...

Lets just say my first race was NOT an easy one and I am So glad it is over!!!! The weather forecast was not looking good ...LOW 40's, 20mph winds, snow, sleet, mixed with rain...The weatherman was SO on this time...We got it ALL today...It is freaking April (SPRING) this is ridiculous!!!! Mother Nature needs to get her head out of her butt and get our season right :)

I woke up at 7 I had to force myself to eat a power bar (as I normally do not eat in the morning) I waited for Orlando to get here so we could ride together to half way point of the marathon...We both got sucker into doing the second half of the 13.1 miles of the race.....I guess the fastest person is supposed to be the anchor..well lucky me EVERY relay race I have ever done even in track of my youthful days...I was ALWAYS the anchor...I always thought my coach would put me at the end so he could yell at me "Williams get your butt moving and pump your arms :) It seemed to work as now I still to this day when I have nothing left at the end of a race I see him (in my head) yelling at me...I never understood why he was yelling at me I WAS WINNING the race...I guess it was because I never had that drive to push it at the end.... NOW I push it!!!! Anyway, back to the race...Orlando and I get to half way point and stand in the cold and rain/snow waiting for our partners...WELL me (chatter box) was talking away and missed the darn hand off (OOPS) I notice about 6 other relay teams took off before me (I believe they were a mile or so ahead of me) So my goal was to CATCH them....so I start off way too fast like normal... did 1st mile in 6.27 pace (STUPID).....I needed to hold myself back as I just wanted to go, but know there was no way I could hold that pace long ....so I dropped down to 7.10 pace and held that pace roughly until around mile 10...... I was FROZEN, I was soaking wet and I was getting blasted in the face by ice hail OUCH!!!! NO FUN.....My feet were wet and slipping around and I SO wanted this race to be over!!!! I had this race all planned out I would run comfortable until mile 10..then I would get into my hurt box and bust my butt the last 3 miles.....WELL after mile 10 I found myself doing more of a walking/sprinting my legs were tight and did not want to go!!!!! I caught up with this guy and thought he could help me pace myself and keep "walking" off my mind.... I started to pull ahead a little then he would catch up with me....I believe we were using each other to keep us going...it was working for awhile...BUT I could not take listening to his LOUD breathing...I had my ipod full volume and could still hear this guy and I COULD NOT TAKE IT...so my options were: to either speed way up and hope to lose him or to stop and let him go....My legs just did not have any go, so I stopped and walked (FUDGE) "what am I doing"...started running again, look down at my watch and was a little upset as I was wanting to do the race in 1hour 30 min and it has already past :(...so I PUMPED THE ARMS and put my head down and dug deep into the wind and hail and finished in 135 which was a 7:15 pace...I was happy with the result considering the weather and the extra 10lbs of clothing I was wearing :)..

My partner Susan and I ended up getting 2nd place in the relay and we missed 1st place by a few seconds (DARN) I thought I caught all the girls ahead of me and I was not passed by anyone....they must of been up aways before I started the race!!!!!

Big shout out to team Racing for Recovery.......AWESOME job to Orlando and Kevin and Susan for a great race ... :) Susan, THANK YOU for hurting with me and being my partner!!! Kevin did the WHOLE marathon...let me tell ya, he just started running a few months ago and did very well for his first marathon, very proud of him!!!....Orlando is becoming pretty speedy and watching these guys change their lives around is so AWESOME...I am proud of you guys :) We represented Racing for Recovery well :)

Enjoy the photo's I wish I would have taken them RIGHT AFTER the race.... I had Rudolph nose going...but my hands were too frozen to get the camera ready..so these were taken after I already scarfed down 2 bagels and 2 coffees....but you can still see the hail on our hats and jackets!!!!! 3 things I learned today...1. do not wear racing flats this long of distance (SORE...OUCH) 2. I will NEVER do this race again!!!!!! 3. Practice HILLS as there were 4 and they hurt!!!!


Thank you for everone's good luck wishes...I thought about all of you today :)