Never Again- now I remembered why I said that.

Yesterday was the big day- and what a day it was. From 3pm until I was warm in my bed at 11:30pm it was crazy. We decided we needed to leave pretty early to get there (the race started at 5:30 PM), so we figured we'd leave the house at 3. After dropping off Siege, and picking up my good friend and fellow racer Lee Ann, we literally were running to the start line.

We had no time to drop off our bags, so we had to ditch everything that wasn't valuable and run with the rest. Which means we have come home, two pairs of gloves, 1 pair of sweat pants, and 2 beanies lighter. The strip was insane. When we got to Mandalay Bay, we saw exactly what 44,000 people in one group looked like.

After pushing our way through the mosh pit of bodies, we finally made it to our wave for take off (Corral 16). We took off about 20 minutes after the first wave started. It was so fun at the beginning. The bands were entertaining and there were spectators cheering on the sidelines pretty much the whole way. Chris had decided he wanted to stick with me for the whole race. It was awesome having him right by my side the whole time.

Around mile 2 I found my cheering section, Katie & Tricia. It was so fun to see them on the sidelines. I felt pretty good setting into my pace even though I was weaving through people for about 6 miles. For the entire length of the race there were massive amounts of people around. Anytime the road narrowed, everyone had to slow down to squish together. The way back was pretty tough. By mile 8 my legs and hip flexors were in pain, which is what normally happens to me during my runs. After I passed mile 10 I remember looking at my GPS watch every 2 minutes hoping that I had magically completed another mile only to realize my pace was getting slower and slower. Chris was right behind me. Every once in a while I'd ask him how he was doing. At first he said things like, "Great!" and "Good." Then he'd say things like, "How far have we gone now?" and "My legs are starting to feel it".

At mile 11 I started hoping to see a water station. Thinking I just needed a little more water to keep me going. At 11.6 the water station came and my stamina went. I looked at Chris and said, "What do you think about just walking for a little bit?" Chris had no objections, and welcomed the idea. During my 200 plus miles of training up to this point, I had never stopped to "walk a bit". I had run every step of every mile so I didn't know that when you stop to "walk a bit," you don't want to run anymore. As a matter of fact, you hurt so bad that you just want to lay down in the middle of the dirty street. Running the risk of being trampled by a crowd of thousands sounds more appealing than running again.

At first we start walking at a brisk pace, then we began to slow to a leisurely walk and by the end we were limping into the finish line. What was even worse than all of that was how cold I was. After 11.6 miles of running, we got pretty sweaty, so we had to walk a mile and a half in the freezing cold weather- soaking wet. Then after we crossed the finish line we had to walk about another mile to get inside a building. By this point, I'm shaking uncontrollably and my body is numb. After sitting down for 30 minutes I realize that our car is not going to magically pick us up and we decide to make the long trek back to the parking garage. Walking back through the Mandalay Bay Convention center was a nightmare. We were back to being smashed together like sardines. This race is not recommended for those who are claustrophobic. Finally by 10:45 we were home.

This morning I woke up feeling pretty disappointed that we just didn't run the whole thing. Now, 13 hours later, I'm sitting here shivering with a runny nose and a head that feels the size of a watermelon. Oh well, I guess that will be my goal for the next race I run... because I've learned my lesson, never say never.