I felt pretty good coming off the start, and kept my pace in check so I didn't burn myself out too early. I felt like I had a good flow for the first 7 miles and I'm very pleased to say that I was keeping up about an 11:30 pace really nicely. Then I started feeling some soreness in my left hip and tried to move to the inside a bit more to avoid the canting of the road. My left toe started to hurt somewhere around mile 8, and my lower back had a bit of a muscle cramp that became a bit worse about that same time. Still, I managed to stay on pace. I was hitting some of the water stations, but not stopping. I didn't stop once during the whole run, and I never walked. I saw some friends at mile 9 who spurred me on, and that got me through to about mile 11. I slowed a bit from 11 to 12. I started to feel I was hitting a wall, but I talked myself out of it and just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other for the next mile. I ran into another friend just after mile 12 who took a very funny picture of me jumping in the air!! (Maybe I'll post that one later. Ha!) Where did THAT energy come from? Next thing I knew, I could see the finish, and that stash of extra energy that I didn't know was there came flooding out of me. I sprinted. I felt like I was FLYING to the finish!! And as soon as I hit my watch and realized I'd turned in a Personal Record time, I started shrieking. People around me started cheering, and I cried. It was amazing. I HOPE the Brightroom Photography people got a shot of that finish!!!
All in all, an awesome, awesome race. I am still on cloud 9, although at this moment I am reclining on said cloud with some ice on my knees! Yes, I'm a little sore and a lot tired, but it was SO very worth it!
What's next?? I will definitely be doing San Diego Rock 'n Roll, but will it be the half or the full? I still have about $800 to raise by February 28th to meet the challenge I put forth...so we'll just have to wait and see...
Happy running!!
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