A Marathon Post

This winter and spring Maggie and I have done lots of running. Every April in Nashville the Country Music Marathon takes place on a Saturday and the ING Kids Marathon takes place the day before. Children in kindergarten through eighth grade run 25.2 miles in the weeks leading up to their race and then run the last mile with their age group on the same course as the adult marathon, and run into the same finish line as the adults. Maggie's school also ties it in to a school fundraiser and the kids get sponsors who agree to pay X dolars/per mile. Maggie's wonderful extended family (including us) sponsored her and she raised over $150 for her school! The school part of it was so well organized: the kids met immediately after school and ran a mile (five laps around the playground), getting a mark on their hand for each mile to keep track, and they each got a necklace with foot charms to keep track of each mile.
Here's Maggie proudly displaying her FULL necklace.

She was so proud to wear her race bib.

The day of the race was crazy. The traffic was horrible and we only got to the race ten minutes before it started. It was pure chaos, BUT we were able to make it on time. She ran the whole race and we got to cheer for her as she crossed the finish line. It totally made me tear up; I was beyond proud.

I loved the kids race for so many reasons. Of course I loved that it promotes healthy activity and even makes it fun. It was also so sweet to see her and a huge group of students running around the playground after school every day. My favorite thing, though, was it was so fun to watch Maggie set a goal, work hard at it, and then see it to completion. Once when we ran during spring break (I had Finn and Carolina in the double stroller while Maggie and I ran together) Maggie wanted to quit running and I told her I could see our finish up ahead. As soon as she heard that she sprinted until she got to the end. And on the first day of after-school training I noticed she was still running when most of the other kids were finishing. I flagged her down and asked her how many laps she had run and she said "I'm on my sixth lap! I want to run TWO miles today, instead of ONE!" I loved her attitude and excitement.

There were tables set up in the secure finish area with bottles of Gatorade, bananas, bagels, etc. Maggie thought it was so cool that she could get any snack she wanted. It's the little things, people.
 
The next day I went for a little jog with 30,000 of my closest friends. (I'm not in this photo, just in case you felt inclined to look.)

Last November I started thinking about training for the Country Music Half Marathon. I asked two of my craziest friends, Molly and Tiffany, if they would want to train with me. Molly ran it last year so she was our guru. We started our training in January and every Saturday morning at seven AM we met to run, working our way from 4 miles to 11 miles the Saturday before the race. We always started our runs at a coffee shop and then would sit for a half an hour and drink a cup before we headed home to our families. We would chat the whole time we were running and we ran all over Nashville - Brentwood, East Nashville, Belmont, Music Row, 12 South, downtown. On one of our runs we chugged up a hill, made a turn, and realized we had a gorgeous view of the Parthenon. Some of the runs were harder than other (and not necessarily the longer ones - the 11-miler was my favorite run of all!). The training was fun.

The day of the race we were so excited. One of us (Tiffany, on the left) even put makeup on. Check out the lovely scenery behind us. I read that once you get to the start of the race you should get in line for the porta-potties and basically just keep getting in line and using the potty over and over again until it's time to line up. I wish we had done that. I ended up having to stop about five miles into the race and use a porta-potty on the course. Ugh.

While we were waiting in the crowd for our corral to start, I noticed that the sun rising behind us was feeling hot (at 7 AM). As soon as it was our turn we took off! Starting at about the first half mile (of 13.1 total miles) I started feeling sluggish and nauseated. Meanwhile Tiffany and Molly seemed to be having the time of their lives, actually cheering on the crowds off to the side (uh, guys, I'm pretty sure they're supposed to be cheering for US). I kept trying to rally but I pretty much was hating it from that first half mile on. They were kind enough to slow down a bit when I asked them, but I never really felt good.

My mom and Benton and my brother Christopher, sister-in-law Kajsa, and their baby Jake, were waiting for us around mile five. Benton snapped this picture of me and I definitely look better than I felt. I remember thinking, "Try to smile so the photo will turn out cute. Pretend this is fun." (For the record, Benton wasn't fooled. He told my mom he could tell I was having a hard time. Very perceptive, Benton!)

 We got separated when I stopped to pee (TMI, sorry) and I kept trying to catch up with them until I realized even if I could catch up, I would need to stop and rest once I found them since I was killing myself to try to catch them! So I felt strangely liberated when I realized I would be finishing the race by myself and could slow down if needed.

I was getting water and Gatorade every time it was offered and quickly started getting two waters at each station - one to drink and one to dump on myself. It was just so blazing hot and it was really taking a toll on me.

Grant and the kids, as well as my dad, were waiting for me around mile ten. I made myself smile and wave and be cheerful when I ran by the kids so they wouldn't worry, but as soon as I was out of their line of vision I let myself walk for a minute. Every time I knew someone was waiting for me (mom, Grant, etc.) I would think, "I'm just going to stop with them and be done. They'll take me home." But I kept going.

Meanwhile, Molly and Tiffany had stopped with their families and jogged in place trying to let me catch up to them after my potty stop. Unbeknownst to all of us, I had actually passed them at this point. When Molly and Tiff passed Grant, Molly said, "Pray for Court! She's TOO HOT!" and then Grant said, "She just passed here a little while ago!" In the retelling, Maggie told me, "And then Molly-boo SCREAMED and ran really fast."

So they caught up to me around mile 11 and boy, was I surprised to see them as I thought they were ahead of me at this point! We ran together until about mile 12.5 and then they sped up again (but I was just a little bit behind them).  Finally, as I got to the last half mile before the finish line, something happened. I felt amazing. I could see the end and my feet grew wings. I felt like I was flying for the last half mile. I don't know how fast I was going, but I'm pretty sure I was amazing. Ha. But seriously. If I had felt that good the whole time, I would have loved it. I cried a tiny bit when I crossed the finish line because I was so relieved.

Benton and Mom were waiting at the finish line and snapped this when they saw me.
I am really proud of myself. I finished in 2 hours and 22 minutes, which was slower than the speed we trained at, but it is not too shabby for a first (and maybe last?) half marathon. I'm so glad I did it. I just wish it had been, oh, 50 degrees with a light rain!
And if you made it through this entire post, you deserve a medal, too.