Race recap

My sister, Marti, and brother-in-law, Jeff, came to visit a few weeks ago. The timing of their visit was planned around a half marathon relay that my sister and I registered to run. My sister has run several races, from 5Ks to half marathons, and I've run a few 5Ks, but no races since several months before I found out I was pregnant. And after I had Elle, recovery from the delivery of Gigantor left me in pain for two months. I thought I might never run without pain again.

Thankfully, that was not the case, and running the half marathon relay with my sister was excellent motivation to get back on the running, um, train, as well as an athletic bonding experience with my sister. It was certainly challenging to find time to train, but in the end, I was comfortable with where I was at: Slow, but not at risk to physically hurt myself by running my 5.5-mile leg.

I took a few days off work for my family's visit. We realized a few weeks before the race that the run was the morning after daylight saving time, meaning we'd be running early in the morning on one less hour of sleep. Whee! I ended up getting about four hours of sleep the night before we ran, but Marti and I got up early and headed to the race site around 5:30 a.m. My leg of the relay was first, but since we were there with plenty of time to spare, we hung out together with other runners until close to the 7 a.m. start time, when Marti headed to the relay area.

It might seem that I had the easier part of the race - after all, a half marathon is 13.1 miles, and my leg was 5.5 miles. Marti was going to run 7.6 miles. The night before the race, though, we were looking at the course map when we realized that there was an incline on the first leg of the course. No problem, I thought. I'd only trained on a flat area in my neighborhood, but it certainly couldn't be *that* much of an incline, could it?

Let's just sum it up this way: One of the other runners said that the relay was divided not evenly in distance, but evenly in difficulty, and I have to agree. The course was an area I've driven on countless times to one of my favorite aquariums, but I'll never look at the bridges that I ran over the same. It was cold at 7 a.m., and there was a breeze. Although it was dark when we started, as the sun came up, the view of the water as we ran over the causeway was amazing. The words "ran uphill both ways" kept going through my head as I battled the wind and incline, but the sun came out around mile 2 and I started to hit my stride. By mile 4, I'd taken off my sweatshirt and thrown on my sunglasses. And right around then, I decided that a faster pace was sustainable for the remaining 1.5 miles and maybe it would be better if I could just power through the last of the bridge. I ended up motoring through the last 1.5 miles and met Marti at the relay exchange, when she took this picture of me approaching:

Then I wandered around for a bit and waited for Marti to run on her flat portion of the course return to the relay exchange area, where we would run in the last tenth of a mile and cross the finish line together.

As we joked about preparing for a perfect picture finish, Marti pointed out a surprise on the left side of the finish line: Jeff, Tim and Elle! We had told our husbands not to bother coming to the race. As nice as it would have been to see them after finishing, I didn't want to disrupt Elle's nap schedule, especially with the time change, and with transportation, traffic and timing issues, we didn't think it was worth the hassle for the boys to battle the crowds and meet us. But I have to admit, it was AMAZING to see them and have them watch us cross the finish line. I was very thankful that Tim had decided to surprise me, called and picked up Jeff at the hotel and battled the crowds to find us.

Elle: Unimpressed. Me: Thrilled!

I had done a lot of people watching while I ran and waited for Marti, and I was inspired by the mother/daughter teams, the kids cheering their fathers on, the babies in strollers guarded by relatives waiting for the babies' parents to complete the race. I kept wishing that Elle could be there to see me finish, that someday we would be able to participate in events like this as a family or even do a relay together. And there she was, with Tim and Jeff, watching her mommy and aunt cross the finish line.

Our "official" race photo.

It was an amazing surprise, and it actually worked out really well with her nap schedule. The boys and Elle joined us for the post-race breakfast, and I let Elle eat some banana and yogurt, so she was in heaven.

I felt good after the race. Tired, but good. The weather ended up being perfect by the end of the race, and I wasn't sore or sick from the run. Marti and I placed 48th out of 68 relay teams (there was also an option to run the straight half marathon with no relay), and we were pleased with that, since we weren't really doing it to break any time records. I was just pleased that I managed to run 5.5 miles and not die. A group of women saw me with Elle as we were eating breakfast, and they congratulated me on running "so soon" after having Elle (I didn't explain to them that she was several months old). I had demanded requested donuts after completing the run, and Marti brought a half-dozen delicious donuts over later that morning. YUM. My basic needs had been met, so I was happy.

Family photo <3

Burning oodles of calories before 9 a.m., taking in the beautiful sunrise, checking out the scenery as I crossed the bridge, getting donuts, experiencing a bonding experience with my sister, being surprised by my family, holding my daughter after finishing the race ... all in all, an excellent Sunday morning :)

Sisterly bonding complete: Post-run, pre-donuts :)