Surf City Half Marathon 2:21:12!!!

The 'guts and glory' photos.
Does anyone look good running?

What a beautiful, glorious, bucket list checkin' terrifying weekend. 

So many emotions were experienced that it is going to be hard to put everything into words. The weekend started off with two gf's from Dallas flying in for a little vacation in SoCal and a Half Marathon. Katie and I had planned to run this over two months ago and after a lot of emails, miles, and encouraging txts the race weekend was finally here. 

Everything was going just as planned until Saturday. That day I decided to go for a little 3 miler before we set off for Huntington Beach to pick up our packets for the race the next day. Right before the run, I had nibbled on some left over sushi from the night before and during the first mile I was having trouble breathing, I was so confused because if I couldn't run one mile how the heck was I supposed to run 13.1! I kept on running through the pain and by mile 3 I had to walk home. I prayed that I would make it home without passing out because by then I was gasping for air. THANK GOD Katie and Meghan were at my apt. I immediately looked in the mirror saw that my entire face had swelled up beyond recognition and I looked like this. Not even kidding, my eyes were so swollen that they looked like slits. 

I was having an allergic reaction.

As my friends were asking me questions about what was going on I could barely even say anything, It took all my energy to muster a word as I felt as if I was suffocating. I had never been so afraid in my life but in this moment. My brain wasn't even working, I couldn't even think. All this happened in less then 30 minutes. My body felt like it had been poisoned and was being attacked inside and once I got everything out of my system  I felt a sense of relief and was able to breathe. They drove me to Urgent Care and I got two wonderful shots in my bum. I am now on steroids which are making it hard to sleep and making me nauseous. And the crazy part is that even though I went through all of that I still decided to run against what the doctor said. I didn't want to let anyone down. While it is not the smartest move I had ever made I would have been so upset if I didn't run it. I just had to. 

Thankfully we were staying at my friend Dylan's (who is an avid marathoner) and he said he would run along side me in the half to make sure nothing would happen to me. I am so grateful for him and for that. I started off the race super slow as you can tell that by my mile 3 avg was almost 11 minutes. I was scared to go any faster after what had happened during my last running session. By mile 6-7 I told myself  "I got this", I was feeling healthy and not nervous. My mile 8 avg was 11 minutes faster than my mile 3 so clearly I was feeling confident in running. I took my GU shot at mile 8 as well and I am thinking that helped me as I wasn't really feeling fatigued (I woke up 2 am the morning of the race!) and finished the race without walking at all. I sprinted and pretty much was leaping to the finish line at the end. I finished and beat my goal running the race under 2:30! I felt that I could at least run 2-3 more miles after it was over. A runners high. The best kind of high. 

The race was organized wonderfully and the weather was in it's 60-70's. Just perfect with the ocean breeze. There was plenty of water, port a potty's and people cheering you on. (They were even passing out M&M's!) Not the mention the course was relatively flat with one baby hill around mile 3 but hey it was along the ocean so there was no complaining at all. I don't think I will be able to ever run that long without the ocean by my side. That constant companionship definitely helped me and taking in gulps of fresh air was just fantastic. They had people running through out the race holding up what time you would finish which was really nice, I kept up with 2:10 guy for a bit but then faltered. No matter, I knew I was going to beat my goal and wasn't too worried. My goal for my next half will be to run it in 2:15. I strongly believe I can do that. 

All in all, it was a great weekend. One for the books. I'm so proud of myself for completing the race. I literally can't wait to map out the races I will be running in 2012. I know for sure I will be running the Big Sur Half with Katie (my Dad plans on running it with me as well, but I will believe it when he signs up) in November and I will run at least 4-5 more 10k's a few 5k's here and there. Katie is running a full marathon in Chicago this year which is really inspiring. While I am not sure if I will ever want to run 26.2,  it is something for my little running legs to think about in the future. 

One Mile At A Time.

{Also, check out Katie's recap of the race on her lovely little bloggy blog}

UPDATE:

Turns out my allergic reaction was indeed due to a shellfish allergy. WHAT THE WHAT. I feel as if my sushi loving days are over. On top of that I learned I have asthma. Again, WHAT?  I now am a proud owner a pretty blue fab inhaler. Oh yes and I am allergic to cockroaches, horses, feathers (I asked if wearing feathers would affect me, It doesn't. PHEW), peanuts (goodbye peanut butter), green peas, grass, and soy milk (threw that out the second I got home). It was a fun 27 years living like I had no allergies. Woops.  My poor poor body.