And It Went Like This...

Saturday:

7:30am--Husband drives Jamison to a friend's house for the day.

8am--9 girl scouts & 7 adults set off in a caravan to downtown DC to celebrate the 100th Year of Girl Scouts at the National Mall.

10am--We are in our spot, blankets spread, chairs unpacked & ready for the day.  Husband leaves us to meet a friend whose picking him up for the wedding he's in at 4pm.

11am--Everyone is HOT.  We're in a field by the Washington Monument & it's at least 90 degrees with no shade & minimal breeze.

12pm--Girls are dropping like flies.  No one wants to eat.  The water line is taking 45 minutes to an hour to refill bottles.  Everyone is CraNkY!

2pm--Done. Stuff is packed. Just waiting to do the Guinness Book of World Records biggest flash mob dance.

2:30pm--Give up on the dance & start to walk away.

2:35pm--Dance starts.  We drop everything, participate in the dance & THEN continue towards our cars.

3:30pm--At cars.  Girls cooling off & perking up a bit.  Load everyone up with snacks & drinks.  I wave goodbye as my girls head home with friend for a sleepover.

4pm--I'm in the parking garage bathroom.  I have a wet washcloth from home, a stick of deodorant, *some* of my makeup (as I forgot my foundation), and a dress.  I do what I can with my hot sticky mess to get ready to meet hubby at wedding reception.

5pm--Arrive at wedding reception. (after roads were closed & the directions I printed were useless) Hubby is super handsome in his suit & I enjoy visiting with friends.

8pm--Remind hubby that I have a 7 mile race in the morning so we should be leaving soon.

9pm--Tell hubby it's TIME to leave.

9:05pm--Tell hubby to say goodbye to bride & groom.

9:15pm--Grab keys & tell hubby I'll meet him in the car.

9:20pm--Watch hubby run across lawn to get into the car that is running & in front of the wedding location.

9:45pm--Rub hubby's back while parked on side of 495.  (I won't go into the details...)

10:15pm--Put hubby to bed with fan & glass of water, big kiss on the forehead & appropriately call him stupid.

10:30pm--Shower the layers of sunscreen & stink off.

11pm--Finally crawl into bed.

**Wake every hour worried that I'm oversleeping.  Or from stomach pain thanks to my nerves.  Or from husband snoring.**

Sunday:


5am--Alarm clock goes off.

5:15am--Can't decide what to drink and/or eat, so make both coffee & water bottle.  Grab granola & nuts, Access bars & backpack.

5:30am--Head to pick up Michelle.

5:45am--Realize Michelle can't get into passenger side of my car without getting hand *dirty* from 495 incident night before.

6am--On the road in Michelle's van to Baltimore.

6:15am--Realize I've forgotten my stop watch.  DAMMIT!

6:45am--Park van on random road near race start.

6:55am--Find one dollar bill lying on sidewalk while walking toward race start. (lucky day???)

7am--Approach Team Fight tent just as they begin Dedication Circle.

7:15am--Meet Sam, who is running with me for this race.

7:30am--Head to race start.  Pretty much feeling like throwing up.  Wondering WHAT I WAS THINKING!?!?

7:35am--Race starts.

**Here's the point where I usually give a play-by-play of my actual race, but this one was so long, that I'm not sure I can remember all the details.  I'll just give some highlights.**

*Since I forgot my stop watch, I had to use the stop watch on my non-smart phone which kept shutting off on me.  And I thought that was super dandy at 7:30am.  No, my race partner Michelle NOR Sam remembered watches either.  We were quite the team. :)

*Sam was a trooper to hang with me.  I told him I get whiny--he said he has 2 sisters. I told him I start to swear when I'm toward the end--he said it would not offend him at all.  We were the perfect pair!

*I was very happy for all the water stops when they happened.  I took a couple swigs of Gatorade, one sip of water & then poured the rest of the cold water on my neck & down my back.  It was glorious.

*At every mile marker I shouted "YAY!  Mile 1 down!"  Sam said, "What's 6 more?"
  When I said "Yay!  Mile 3 down!"  Sam said, "What's 4 more?"  And so on...you get the picture.

*When we hit the Mile 6 marker, it was like hitting a sun-filled brick wall.  There was no shade, no more water & a mile to go.  On my first walking break of the first interval after that marker, I said "I'm gonna walk just one more extra minute."  I was feeling tingly & I thought "I'm not gonna pass out THIS close to the finish!"

*When that second minute passed, I just kept on walking.  I saw racers walking the opposite direction who had already finished with water bottles & wet towels.  I considered tackling one of them for just one swig of water!

*Then we saw Ben with his CT5K shirt & camera.  I said, "We can't be walking in the pictures Ben takes for CT5K so let's get back to it."  Sam figured we were only about 1/2 mile from the finish at that point & that's all I needed to know.

*As we turned the final corner & could SEE the finish, Michelle appeared on the sidelines (superwoman ran it out & left us eating her dust back before the Mile 1 marker) "YAY Jenny!  Sprint to the finish, it's all down hill from here!"  (It literally was a decline in elevation, not just a figure of speech) BUT I was close to the end & my sweet self was no where to be found.  Luckily Michelle loves me & just laughed when I screamed back, "Shut it or I'm gonna punch you in the face!"

*And then there was the finish line and the big clock said 1:33...which is 3 min past my goal time.  And I don't know my official time yet, but EVEN so, I'm way super duper extremely pleased that it was that close at all with the extra walking in the final mile.

*Lady past the finish line had a bucket of cold, wet towels.  She says to me "Honey, would you like 2?"  Um, yes, actually 2 would be great!

Big Goal Race #1 of 2012=DONE!  Next up, training for the half marathon in October.  As soon as we got in the car on the way home Sunday, I told Michelle I didn't know if I could actually run a half marathon.  She said "Sure you can!  We'll do it!"  And I was reminded of a time when I wasn't sure I could even run a 5K, much less 7 miles.  SO...I guess only time will tell.

All I know is THIS is a weekend we will NEVER forget!