Race weekend {Part 2}

After my daughter's race on Friday, April 4, it was time for my race on that Saturday. The Cooper River Bridge run! Its one of the biggest 10k races in the country and it was amazing!! It turned out to be such a beautiful morning. The temperatures were just perfect compared to last year. Last year it was freezing! We had to wear sweatshirts on top of thin jackets that we would wear during the race. The sweatshirts got thrown away (donated to the local goodwill) along with so many others. Gotta do what you gotta do - cant run with all that stuff on! This year I got away with just my tank top that I was running in!

The beautiful bridge during the run!

 Photo by The Chart Group, Inc

 Race morning did not start of the way I had hoped and liked for it to start off. I was so exhausted from the day before that I. FORGOT. TO. TURN. MY. ALARM. ON..... YES, I had it set, but COMPLETELY forgot to turn it on!! My plan was to wake up at 4 to get dressed and eat. Then leave around 4:25 to go and pick up my friend Amy. You know the kind of peaceful morning that gives you time to do all that you need and a peace of mind to not have to freak out about the possibility of EXTREME traffic jams - I did mention that about 40,000 people sign up for every year!

I woke up at 5:02. I heard my phone ringing, but then since I was asleep, I wasn't quite sure where the "music" was coming from. I woke up and looked at the alarm, saw what time it was and prayed that the clock was wrong! Picked up my phone and realized the time was right. I have never jumped up so fast. All I could think was it's done. "I will never make it there with all the chaos that will be coming through now!" I didn't know what to do. I was still partly asleep. My friend Amy, has prob been waiting on me since 4:30 (and I forgot to send her my new number). My husband jumped up with me too. I guess I may have screamed "AAHHHH! I OVER SLEPT" or something like that.

I fell to the floor and started crying, thinking that I would not be going. When I finally got it together (2 minutes) I called the number that called me and it was Amy! I apologized and apologized some more - I was so sorry. After all this was going to be her first bridge run experience! She finally convinced me that we had time to get there. So I told her "Okay, give me about 10 minutes and I am on the way!" I started flying around the house and thought, I will throw everything I need in a bag that I can just toss out once we get there, I am fully dressed and I finally really got it together. I threw my flip flops on, grabbed tennis shoes and socks and everything else that I truly needed and ran out the door.

I forgot food.....

Luckily when we made it downtown, my nightmare of CRAZY traffic did not come true! We found decent parking at the top of a parking garage and were on our way! Phew! What a relief!!

By the time we got around to the starting area, there was not going to be enough time to grab food and eat. The lines were still long - well I guess I could have, but didnt want to chance it. Time was already flying by so quickly.

I did have an energy gel that had about 100 calories, so I took that right before I started. But all in all it SUCKED to run on an absolute empty stomach! I didnt think to just eat anyway and jump into a coral that was behind mine. I was in coral letter I. Your time doesn't start until you cross the starting line.

We met up with some other friends at the start and was ready to have a good time!

Oh well. I did the best that I could. Couldnt push too hard, because I would have passed out. I beat my time last year by about 5 minutes. We live and learn thats for sure. Over all the race was awesome. The security was taken up a notch and we all felt safe! I am grateful for such an amazing and very well organized race in our area!

We got over it! Ready to do it again!

Much Love,
Krissy