February 28, 2010
New Orleans Mardi Gras Rock and Roll Half Marathon
Today was interesting. I woke up this morning not know what the day was going to have in store for me. All I knew is that I had decided to run this half marathon with very little training at all. Last week I did a whole 8 miles total of training. Hell, I had only done a total of Miles since the Disney World Marathon back in January. I figured I could do this one with a friend to give her support.
I found Brittany about an hour before the race and we made our way to the corrals for the start of the race. There were so many people there. We were in corral 17 and my wife Jenny and her training partner were in corral 7, so I told them good luck and that we would see them at the end.
Side note: Jenny got a PR with a 2:04... 7 minutes better than her previous PR. Terri got a 1:55... 5 minutes better than her previous PR. Proud of my girls!
Anyway, back to the race. Brittany and I were planning on keeping about a 10 to 11 minute mile, so a PR was not even on my mind, but it was for her! We said that we were just going to enjoy the race. We were enjoying the race and talking as we went by a lot of the bands that were playing during the race. We got to about mile 8 when I realized that my friend was getting really quiet. About that time she said to me, "you are going to hate me when I tell you this." I had no idea what was coming next. "I couldn't find my inhaler this morning, and I am having a hard time getting a deep breath." I knew that this was going to be a very interesting race from this point on. I asked her if she was going to be able to make it through the rest of the race and she told me she could.
I found Brittany about an hour before the race and we made our way to the corrals for the start of the race. There were so many people there. We were in corral 17 and my wife Jenny and her training partner were in corral 7, so I told them good luck and that we would see them at the end.
Side note: Jenny got a PR with a 2:04... 7 minutes better than her previous PR. Terri got a 1:55... 5 minutes better than her previous PR. Proud of my girls!
Anyway, back to the race. Brittany and I were planning on keeping about a 10 to 11 minute mile, so a PR was not even on my mind, but it was for her! We said that we were just going to enjoy the race. We were enjoying the race and talking as we went by a lot of the bands that were playing during the race. We got to about mile 8 when I realized that my friend was getting really quiet. About that time she said to me, "you are going to hate me when I tell you this." I had no idea what was coming next. "I couldn't find my inhaler this morning, and I am having a hard time getting a deep breath." I knew that this was going to be a very interesting race from this point on. I asked her if she was going to be able to make it through the rest of the race and she told me she could.
All I can say is that this girl is a trooper! Brittany told me that she was sorry that she was "holding me back" during the race, but all I could think of during this run was how amazing she was to keep going with this asthma kicking in. She was the strong one here, and I have never seen anything like this. I ran four half marathons and one full marathon in the past year and this had to be the most amazing race of the year. It was the only race that I did for someone else besides myself, I wasn't worried about my time, and I saw the biggest display of endurance and drive that I have ever seen. Thank you for showing me what running is all about Brittany!
Jenny and Terri.....again!
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