Here is the front of my jersey.
We had a "pimp my jersey" party the day before with the team. We had so much fun decorating our jersey and writing the names of our loved ones anywhere we could. So morning of the race, we got up at 3:30am to get ready and eat breakfast which is so important especially for marathoners. A quick recap, our team got word the day before the race that bad weather was approaching Nashville on Race Day i.e. tornadoes. Let's get real people I mean tornadoes that lift cars off of interstates (check Mississippi on April 23rd) and destroy people's houses. Our coaches and TNT staff were very calm, cool and collected about the whole thing.
They had a plan of action in case things went south. Lucky for us, they all coordinated with each other to see that we made it through our race check points on time. They told us that there might be a chance that we would have to divert off of the course and seek shelter. I was thinking well maybe that is the worst case senerio.
After taking pictures at 4:30am jumping on the bus heading towards the start line (mind you its still dark outside), we huddle together for last bit of coach wisdom. Phrases such as "go to the bathroom now before the lines are ridicious (Coach Alex), check your gearbag (wouldn't see that again), stretch and run your pace (Coach Joe). Since being injured, I had come to enjoy my light jogs with BSR "Big Shot Robbie; we had very similar pace. We ended up in corral 30 out of 33 not too bad. I even saw a person dressed as Moses (sorry no pictures but it was funny wig and all).
At the beginning of the race, we started with our warm up "walking mile" something that we did at every practice just to get the blood pumping. We eventually stuck to the power walking cheering on every TNTer that passed us calling them out by name. I think Robbie felt like the mayor of Nashville at some point because people were cheering for him and he would holla back at them. It was so great to have so much support on the course especially being at the very end of the pack literally. Robbie was uber special because every cheer squad on the course called him out by name-What are the chances of that happening? We did happen to pass one of our teammates, Robbie's mom Cathy, at the McDonalds. She was checking out their facilities. Later on I heard that one of our dearly beloved coaches had a mouth watering biscuit. Any takers? Coach Alex-ooppps the cat's out of the bag.
Our first coach encounter with our coaches was around mile 3 or 4 that I can recall was with Coach Joe wearing his neon vision of course. He came up to us and asked us how we were doing and feeling. We told him that we were just enjoying the experience of the race especially all of the bands on the course. The bands were great to listen to. At this point in the race, it was about 8:30 or 9:00am and we were heading down what Robbie and I called Fraternity Row. They were outside hooting and hollaring and of course having themselves a good ole time.
I haven't mentioned that this course was full of hills-its the reason that Robbie and I took it easy later on we would find out that it was worth it. As we head into mile 7 or 8 the rain kicked in and it was heavy fat rain. When Robbie and I hit mile 9 or 10, it hit me that I had to go to the potty and I didn't care where I went. I kept telling Robbie that going on a church lawn is sinful and probably punishable by law-there were cops everywhere on the course. It was raining, the hills weren't getting any easier and the police had started issuing weather warnings via their loud speakers on their car to be prepare to evaculate the race course. Robbie, myself, Tiffany and Coach Alex stuck together until mile 11 when we passed race officials that said you either run like crazy to make it to the finish line or be prepare to evaculate very soon.
I turned to my teammates and said "I have come too far not to cross that finish line. See ya there!" I took off running which I haven't done in a while passing people with their finishers' medals on already. Yes I know I was slow but geez. I caught up to Coach Shannon who ran with me for a few blocks and gave me those last encourage words " You are almost there!" I never thought I would be so excited to hear those words. With the rain coming down and the finish line in my sight, I started to tear up. A few weeks ago, I didn't think I would have made it with a bummed hammie and physical therapy. It was such a relief to see my teammates Pat and Cathy and then my family at the finish line waiting on me. I ran to both sides of the finish line corral to high five them all.
I've got the golden medal
Jenn, the proud mentor
The Graves' Family-We finished!
As a sidenote, none of our full marathoners completed the race. They were diverted at some point on the course. I know it was a disappointment to them but safety comes first. Here is the announcement from the race officials: http://nashville.competitor.com/results/
No comments:
Post a Comment