Rock Stars

We did it... we did it... we did it. So happy to have that 20-miler finished!!!

There were tears... tears of pain and then tears of joy! There was also a lot of laughter. Funny I remember laughing but at the moment I can't remember what all we found so funny. Probably just our silly selves.

It was a huge group this morning at the State Capitol. I bet there were 200+ people. It was awesome to see so many blinkly lights!! The morning started off with me not feeling like I was able to take care of "business". When I got to Chery's house I tried again with just a little luck. As we were listening to the announcments before the run I got that feeling... oh no we hadn't even started running yet :( I was really worried!!

Luckily once we started running I felt ok, but about 1.5 miles into the run we passed by an Exxon station and decided to make our first pit stop. We had been running with a couple of ladies who usually run a nice easy slow pace and had decided to stick with them to help pace us. Unfortunately we lost them when we had to make the pit stop. We weren't the only ones so we had to wait in line, since it was all women we decided to take over the mens room too. I was in there trying to take care of business when I hear the ladies say there is someone in there and I hear a man's voice. Well hell, now I really can't do anything now that I know a man is waiting right outside the door!!! LOL

The first miles were really pretty great and I would say the first 5 or 6 just kind of flew by. Just before mile 6 I felt the need to go again, we were by the Holiday Inn off of Ferry street, so we decided to go in there... we just waltzed into the place like we were supposed to be there. It was nice to have a nice restroom to use. Thankfully that was the last time I felt the need to use the bathroom. We made one more stop at mile 15 but I probably would have been ok without it.

So after the last potty stop we were just running along. Seriously I can't even remember most of it. We ran by all the historic places, The Governer's Mansion, Central High School, President Clinton's Library, oh and of course we started at the State Capitol and ran by it one or two more times. Most of this run was on the Marathon route, so did Kavanaugh, and the Heights, and the last 1.5 miles we ran up Dillard's Hill.

The memorable part of the run came in the later miles. Cheryl's back started hurting her and that was making her nauseous. She would have to stop and wait for the nauseous to pass before she could go on.

At one point she found a fire hydrant and squatted down in front of it and used it to massage her back. It was really kind of funny and I'm so mad I didnt' get a picture!! The hydrant massage seemed to help, but not for very long. I really can't say enough how proud I am of Cheryl!! She really was very miserable the last 10 miles, maybe even longer, but she never quit.

A really nice lady made an announcement before the run started that she had cleaned her bathrooms and was opening her home to anyone who needed a pit stop around mile 15. Cheryl and I made a note of the address just in case. I think it was so awesome for Carol and her husband to welcome complete strangers into their home, to use the bathroom's no less!! My hat's off to them, and believe me Cheryl and I took full advantage.
It was soon afer this last stop that Cheryl almost reached her breaking point. The nauseous, foot pain etc were all starting to take their toll. She was trying to figure out if we just kept going down Kavanaugh and back to the Capitol if, we could still get 20 miles. Looking at the directions for the rest of the run just seemed so overwhelming. We did end up following the rest of the training course, and I'm really glad we did, maybe we could have still gotten 20, but we would have missed Dillard's hill... and who would want to miss that???

Michele called at about mile 19 to check on us... her voice and encouragment helped get us through that last mile. She had perfect timing!!

When we turned onto Cross street I kept telling Cheryl she was a rock star.. and she would say "no you are" we kept that up for a minue or so and then we agreed that we were BOTH rock stars!!

The Arkansas State Capitol looks like a minature White House and it was a beautiful sight this morning with the sun gleaming down on it. Oh yeah almost forgot, it started off pretty chilly this morning but it was in the 60's by the time we finsihed.

Huge thank you to the leaders of the Little Rock Training Group - Tom and Hobbit. They had a water stop and were also driving along the course checking on the runners and offering water or whatever, and they were there at the end cheering every one in. They are great people and I can only imagine the time and energy they put into these training runs. I for one really appreciate them!!

It was a great morning, we got to see the run rise over the Arkansas River, we enjoyed the sunshine and we ran 20 freakin miles!!! So yeah we are Rock Stars. When we got back to Cheryl's house we decided we were probably more like the Rolling Stones than Maroon 5... but hey that's ok!!!

After the run we met Brenda at Boulevard Bread which was great. I don't know it I would want to run 20 miles if I couldn't sit back and have a great cup of coffee while chatting with my friends!!
Cheryl and I had ordered 8 grain heart healthy toast... very yummy, but oh my goodness the raspberry jam we put on it was just fantastic!!! So yummy, I need to go back and buy a whole jar!

I am feeling pretty great considering I ran 20.3 miles this morning!! A far cry from some of my 20 milers last summer when we were training for Chicago.. I remember not being able to walk the rest of the day after some of them.

Cheryl... you rock and I am so happy and proud that I have been able to be a part of your Marathon training. I can't wait to see you cross the finish line on Marathon day!!!