15.5 Miles of RiverBank

Saturday proved to be a wonderful day for a 15.5 mile run. Nothing but sun, bugs, throwing up, Diarrhea and a hungry stomach. The race was wonderful despite, all the craziness. The course seemed shorter than I had remembered, but had more hills then I wanted. Through out the second half of the race, I remember becoming quite delirious and unaware of my surroundings. I remember having conversations with runners, and with spectators, but I cannot recall what was I said. Weird eh? However, the entire course I was very sick. I had a hard time keeping fluids in and anything solid. Most of it ended up back on the ground, so this is extremely grueling for the body to entire without much energy. It took a long of strength mentally to continue when you feel like crap running the thing.
I must say thank you to all of those who came out and supported their runners. It is very nice to see such wonderful people cheering on family, friends, coworkers and children. It is by far one of the best races, I have ever run in. I love it! I hope to continue doing it for many years.

Let’s talk about my finish because that was by far the best part. I get to Monroe Street, which is the last .5 mile of the race. I am looking for Mom, Dad, Rachel and Drew, but had no luck seeing them until; I approached the last stinking hill. I see Drew & my parents and immediately start sprinting as fast as I possibly can meanwhile, I hear all these people cheering. Also, at this same time my breathing starts kicking into to gear and I am gasping for breath, which is probably due to my excitement and my quick pace. I reach my dad and start talking about how I need to finish this thing in 3.5hrs and he tells me to stop talking and breathe… I couldn’t breathe, but I kept running, so finally we’re approaching the finish line hand in hand when I hear the crowd, see the photographers and feel my heart falling out of my chest and we finish hand in hand arms up. Very cool shot from a photographer stand point. I hit the finish line and try to start breathing, but I can barely hold myself.

At this point, I am completely dehydrated, hungry and in need of a bathroom when, a woman runs up to me and says “ I want to give you my medal because you wont get a medal because they don’t have any left and I want you to have one because you did such a good job. At the point I was drained physically, that I smiled, said thank you, hugged her and walked away. This gives me goose bumps when I think about it because it was so very kind of her and I wish I would have gotten her bib number because I ended up getting a medal and she walked away with nothing, but a cool story. So, thank you, whoever you are. .Hero’s do exist and I got to meet one…. Thanks to everyone who came out!! It was a weekend of great memories.

These two, are my inspiration for everything!