Race Day Yeah!

Good Morning, this is the morning of race day, I as many of you know do not do mornings well, during our training we had meant to do some early morning runs but did not and this picture is a result of that.

We got up at 0500 and got prepared for the challenge ahead of us, doing all of the little things that get us to the start line.

We were only a few blocks away, we walked outside the doors of the hotel and followed the crowd to the start line. It all became really real when I could see the start line, although I wasn't nervous I wanted everything to go as planned, this Marathon meant allot to me in many ways, the first being to avoid the bus and finish it.

There were approx. 7,000 people running in both the Half and Full Marathons. They both started at the same time but the Half marathoners started on one side and the Full Marathoners on the other side of the road, we merged a few miles later.

The Star Spangled Banner was sung and the poor guy who was singing it forgot the lines only a few lines in and asked to start over, which he did then we were off.

I took this pic of the water station, I believe it was mile 4, the runners and all the cups everywhere. Just after this we noticed a man that did not look very good, he was running towards us in the wrong direction of the race and he did not look well. He looked really grey, sweating and seemed to be waivering on the road from side to side. I thought he might have been running in the opposite direction trying to find a medic to help him, then about half a mile later he came running up behind us.
 I got this awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that this guy was going to drop dead at anytime. We were ready to do CPR when he needed it, I was going to do chest compressions and then take of my shirt as it was mesh so Lynda could put it over his mouth and blow through it. He kept on running so thankfully he didn't need our help.  Around mile 11 we saw him again and he was still upright but did not look well, we never saw him again after that.
A man did have a cardiac arrest at mile 18 and was taken to hospital, he woke a few days later from a medically induced coma not remembering the race, I don't know whether it was the same guy, but thankfully the guy is okay.

You can see in the distance all the runners that look like ants, this was around mile 4-5 and I wanted to be on the other side, the other side meant we were around mile 7.5.

Around mile 7 the route went into a place called Market Common which is streets of little shops, along this route was a store that had opened there doors to use the bathroom if you needed and out front of their store they had a real rooster in a warm jacket and it was dancing to the music they were playing.

Myrtle Beach has some of the greatest people along the route, spectators, and volunteers, they get involved and do a great job of cheering us on along the way.

Sam was watching the race from my grandparents place around mile 8, so I kept my eyes out for them and they were waiting for me.

 We stopped for some pics for Sam and then away we went. 

The crowd we had been running along with were so friendly and so much fun to run along with, they loved "Nancy". A shout out to Donald, the lady from the start that had  had the stroke, the green machine and everyone we chatted with.

At mile 12 the turn off for the Half Marathoners came up and many of the people we had been chatting with turned off.
I just wanted to see mile 13 and that meant I was half way.

I wasn't feeling to bad at this point and then at mile 15 something turned and I felt I was going to be sick, I think I had over hydrated and all that water was sloshing around in my stomach, I had to throw up.
I threw up a little bit at a time, all the while continuing to walk in the right direction. At mile 16 I still felt gross so I made myself throw up which was all water and power aide and felt better after that. Thank you to the man from the sidelines who was concerned and came up to me to see that everything was okay, I was just filled to the gills with water. All the things I will have to work through for next time.

I whined from mile 16 on, "I hate running, who's idea was this anyways". 

I took this picture of myself at mile 21 just to see how awful I looked, the weather was getting warmer, the sun was shining bright and I was starting to melt. 

The route was so awesome, Myrtle Beach is really a beautiful place, and the route covers all of the city.

Here is the mile 23 turn where we actually witnessed a lady cheating, at the turn there were no race officials and so a lady didn't run all the way to the end to turn but cut it short and turned. It was unreal, she couldn't run the extra 200 meters after already going 23 miles. 

A few more miles and we crossed the finish line, I will do another post for the finish as I don't have the pics of it, which I'm sure were amazing. I was overwhelmed at the finish, we ran it in together, and I got rid of anything I had left coming across the line. I soaked up the moment. 

The medal we got is some serious bling.

The last few miles all I wanted was a giant glass of cold Diet Pepsi and once we were back at the hotel I sucked back that Diet Pepsi, it was so refreshing.

The only battle scars I came away with were blisters on the back of my heels, which started around mile 6,  I didn't acknowledge that I had them because I felt if I didn't pay attention to them they weren't there.

I was not used to wearing short summer socks and so my heels rubbed on the back of my shoes.

These are my only wounds from the road, I am happy with the whole experience. I will go back next year and run in Myrtle Beach again, there is another Marathon that I have my eyes on for May 2013.