only half crazy (or, running a half marathon without training for it)

What? You mean you didn't know I was training for a half marathon? Oh, well, neither did I. OK that's not entirely true - I vaguely remember signing up for this thing on the day I had a root canal earlier this summer. But I didn't train for it and I kind of blocked it out and hoped that Mr. BP would forget we signed up for it... but darn it, he kept wearing that free shirt we got for signing up for it. And then he kept saying we had better go run and train for our upcoming half marathon. I honestly thought he was kidding about us *really* doing this, because we rarely followed his comments with an actual run.

Well, despite my denial, this morning Mr. Blueberry Pancakes and I ran the Denver Rock-n-Roll 1/2 Marathon and we both finished just fine. I'm not being facetious when I say that we DID NOT train for this, other than the Tuesday night runs with the Tri Club during the summer, and ONE long run - done last weekend, of course. So, how was I able to finish this on such minimal training? I am in OK shape, not great, but good enough. I'm young. I probably wouldn't do this if I was 50 and hadn't trained. But I figured I could do it, *if* I got to the start line. So once I was there, I just... kept running, and I got to the end! I drank water at every aid station. I made myself take 2 10-minute walk breaks on mile 4 and mile 9. But at mile 10, I thought "Holy CRAP! It's only a 5K from here!" so I was mentally pumped and picked it up until the end. Really, if you are fairly fit, doing something like this is entirely mental. Someone had told me if you can run 8 miles, you can run 13. I proved that theory to be correct, in my case.

Right now, 6 hours after the finish, I feel great. Tired, but great! I am pretty sure I'll have a toenail casualty, but maybe not. Other than The Angry Toenail, I really feel *quite awesome*. I am sure tomorrow will be different - achy feet and muscles, probably some ornery knees... but I'm definitely OK right now!

Oh, and did I mention it was just this week that we figured out the race was SATURDAY, not Sunday like we had thought? I will be the first to say I was THRILLED to find this out, as it was one less day to worry about it! And then we thought the start time was 7:45AM, but as we were looking it up at 10PM last night, we found out it was a 7:15AM start. Well, we made it to the start just fine, had to crawl through some barriers to get into the race pack but we were there for the start. We ran a half marathon, 13.1 miles, and we had a great time.

Here are some of the highlights:
- RMTC members (runners, volunteers and spectators) yelling encouragement at me. I'm glad I wore one of my RMTC shirts, because this extra support was very cool. They saw me, mostly. I did spot Phil the Volunteer. And Jaime yelled out for me from the side of the course. It was great to see her! Our club coach can't tell which of us is which when we run together. I'll have to run a Tri Club race with her after she is all healed up.
- The sign that said "Toenails are for Sissies" This was being held up by a young boy around Mile 8, and I thought it was funny. At mile 11 I was grateful I had seen that sign because it was what I was repeating to myself as I was pretty sure I was damaging at least 2 of my toenails. Darn. But hey, like that boy said, toenails are for sissies... so I just kept running.
- The sign that said "Where are you all going?" :) I had to laugh, as on the first mile I had the thought - which I said out loud - "What the heck are we all running from?"
- All the fans! It was SO COOL! Not one of my friends was at the race unless it was by coincidence, mostly because we didn't tell ANYONE we were doing this, in case we ended up in the hospital. :) But with 15,000 other runners (no, we had no idea this race was that big), and all THEIR friends and family cheering for you and holding up signs and ringing cowbells, little kids high-fiving you the whole time, plus the bands along the way, well, it was awesome!
- Running behind a guy asking a girl to date him... in a roundabout way. He was totally hitting on her. She was totally into it. I hope they end up getting married!
- Larry, who has run a marathon in all 50 states. God bless that man.
- The 2 girls wearing the "13.1 Miles 'til Beer" shirts. I picked up with them again at mile 11, when their shirts said "2.1 miles 'til Beer!" Yeah!

And my FAVORITE HIGHLIGHT of the race: Around 17th and Logan where Steubens and all those restaurants are, a VERY BRAVE baker man with his arms wrapped around a giant (and I mean GIANT) paper sack of FRESH BAGUETTES darted across the street right in front of me, weaving through the myriad of runners on their 4th mile in - !!!! Now WHY didn't any of us stop him and grab a baguette?!? :)

All in all, it was a wonderful race on a very beautiful day, and both Mr. BP and I did a lot better than we expected, given our lack of training. I had said to Mr. BP as we walked up to the start that I hoped not too many of the full marathon runners would finish before I finished my HALF. Well, how cool is this? As I was running down the last bit toward the finish, the announcer said over the loudspeaker "Here she comes, the first woman finisher of the Marathon..." I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT! I crossed the line just behind her, so I figure not too many marathoners finished ahead of me... YAY, me!

I finished in 2:30:31 - 2 hours, 30 minutes and 31 seconds. Average pace was 11:29 min/mile. Mr. BP finished in 1:40:22, with an average pace of 7:40 min/miles. PRETTY SWEET. We got finisher medals, chocolate milk, Jimmy John's samiches and the free beer at the end, plus a whole heap of other stuff I can't remember. We're going to a friends First Day of Fall party in an hour or so... I'm *totally* wearing my medal to the party. :)

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I'll update this pic with a real one once MarathonFoto releases all of them and I can pick one to buy. For now, I'm totally using the proof...

Mr. BP finished 55th out of 350 in his age group. Not bad.

Both of us had faster 5K times for the last 3.1 miles of this half marathon than we had for our TIME TRIAL 5K with the Tri Club. Go figure.

It's Monday and I STILL feel great, and have all my toenails! :)