PORTLAND Rock N Roll! BRING IT

RACE UPDATE...... Read it now.... HERE..... QUICK....

I did it ... I DID IT! I have officially ran a 1/2 marathon. Portland Rock & Roll! Come to find out it was Portland's inaugural RnR... First one EVA and I was there.... and it was my FIRST ONE EVA.... It was like a budding romance. Meant to be. Me + Portland = True love. But that was before the race ever started. At mile 11 I felt like divorcing the bitch and moving on with my life, with one less 1/2 marathon. It could keep the house and kids.. Just let me BE! I was dying!!

Let's start from the beginning. We arrived in Portland on Saturday afternoon and headed straight to the Expo. This is my FIRST expo and I was ready to get my race number and get my goodies. If you've never been on an expo you'd probably be like me.... a kid on Christmas morning. I was super stoked to find it was EASY to get my number, my AWESOME shirt, and my swag bag.

LOVE THE SHIRT, hate the tin grin.


Wade and I spent a good hour walking around checking out the goods. I would imagine there were about 50 vendors there with EVERYTHING RUNNING a girl could want.  I bought some socks that were guaranteed to stop you from having blisters. They lied. At first was nervous about taking samples but then I thought... "Hey I paid a BILLION DOLLARS to run in this thing AND I'll be damned if I'm not getting any goods!" That's when my super friendly self started in on sample-fest 2012. It was like an adults Trick or Treat. I loaded up on CLIF bars, SHOT BLOKS, energy chews, energy shot/drink, GU, chapsticks, shampoo samples, and anything else I could grab. Wade helped me by grabbing a few too. If you go to an Expo and are shy... bring a spouse who's not. We sampled NUUN drinks, coconut soy fudge bars, about 5 energy bars... all kinds of stuff. Some good, some NASTY.

This is a SMALL portion of our goods. :) YUMMY

After the Expo we dumped our stuff off at the hotel and I talked my sweet husband into helping find my way to start line. I wanted to be sure I was prepared for Sunday morning. In Portland they have FREE transportation that takes you around the city. It's called the Max. I thought it would be a fun adventure.... What do you think Wade thought?? :)

He's thinking "What am I doing here?"... I'm certain of it.

Let me tell you something folks...
1. I should never have a map. I suck and I'll get us lost.
2. My husband is a SAINT because he puts up with me thinking I know North from South
3. Portland is home of some strange people. (Just an opinion .. don't send hate mail, I'll just delete it).

After Wade took control of the map situation, we found the start line AND staging area. We also decided to stop at The Oyster Bar and enjoy the atmosphere.  We order a couple beers and Wade ordered a sampler of oysters. In about 15 minutes they came out... they were perfectly placed on a plate and they were cold... and RAW.  Needless to say, we passed on them.... It was a $20.00 mistake... but hey, now we know. RAW Oysters = NO WAY.  We ended up have burgers at Joe's Burgers. They were good. We headed back to the room and fell fast asleep...

THE END....

NOPE.. Wait you actually want to read about the RACE, huh?

Sunday morning I was up and ready to get going. Wade and I headed out on the Max again and down the start line. I was feeling a bit blah... I don't know why. Thankfully we met up with Candice and her sister Heidi. We got a few pics.....

These were in my "honeymoon" stage of the 1/2.

I made it to my corral 16 (yes, I'm that slow) and waited for the start. When Wade told me good luck and he was proud of me ... I got a little emotional. It's amazing what it feels like to hear someone you love give you confirmation of pride. :)

Then the gun went off.... of course I was so FAR BACK I had a 20 minute wait before I started actually running to the START line. Yes, you read that right..... they estimated 15,000 people were participating in this event. So, it took me a while to get up there. When we took off I instantly said "you can do this" and "it's all mental".... I felt good for the first few miles... I was noticing a few hills but nothing severe and I felt as if it was going to be a great race. I listened to all the advice I got. I took little slips of water/Gatorade at all the water stations. I rinse my mouth. I noticed so many people on the sidelines cheering. I high-fived almost every little kid there was for at least the first 5 miles. That's when I started to get delirious. I started noticing that my Garmin said I was finishing miles BEFORE the marked miles on the course. SAY WHAT? I also noticed around EVERY CORNER was ANOTHER HILL. This was becoming a bad habit. I kept my head down and feet moving. I wasn't going to stop. I was getting passed, but I was passing a few folks too. Pretty soon mile 8, 9, and 10 were behind me. The hills kept coming. I wanted to punch this 1/2 marathon in the FACE. I was so pissed. I see hundreds of people running up a hill ahead of me and I'd think "REALLY?".  I just kept going. Slow but steady. My back was starting to hurt. My non-blistering socks were NOT working and it had started to rain pretty good. Mile 11-12 was my rough patch.... It felt more like 5 miles distance instead of just 1. I had ate almost all my energy gummies earlier... and I was spent. All I kept thinking was if you stop, you'll be mad. Don't quit. As soon as I saw mile 12 marker I started to bawl. Yep, that emotional "You did it."  and "You actually completed this goal" and "No one can take this from you." and all that other stuff. I was ready to see my friends and my husband and I was ready to be done. I was crying pretty hard. Some man that was cheering people on must have saw me doing the ugly cry face, because he yelled out to me... "Don't worry, around this corner it's all down hill you're almost done!".... Hahahahaha. I was crying because I was proud. He thought I was having a temper tantrum. I wonder what kind of wife he has?!

Then the last stretch came mile 13.... I heard GO MANDY GO.... it was Candice and Heidi. They were all wrapped up in their own heat blankets and soaking wet but the STUCK AROUND to cheer me on. It was amazing to have my friend there ... the one who started me on my journey. It was like a full circle.

A moment later I saw Wade and heard him yelling for me. I really wanted to run and jump into his arms and make him take me home BUT I still had to cross the finish line. I was spent but seeing him standing there soaking wet... waiting for me ... telling me he's proud.. taking my picture... It made it worth it all.

Wade took this moments before the finish.

I made it .... I did my first 1/2 marathon in 2:22:43... 13.1 miles at a 10:54 pace. I survived it. It was SO hard... I'm SO sore and I was SO spent during the hilly bastard... but I am done and I'm ready to take on Seattle. BRING IT EMERALD CITY. I got this.

Race Bling...... OH YEA.


xoxox
M