Legends of the Fall

So as most of the free world knows, I ran in the Las Cruces Half Marathon. Yes, siree I did.

I had two goals for this run. The first was to not be last.  The second would be to run all of the race, no walking.

My plan was to sleep until 6:00 am. get up, clean up. eat my oatmeal, and leave the house by 7:00.  Well, race day jitters got the best of me and I woke up about 5:30 and started the getting ready process.  We left a little before 7:00 am because Danny Dearest needed a stop at Starbucks. 

On the way to the start point I ate my slow release bar to help combat any hypoglycemic episodes that might occur during the run.  And then we pulled up at the Field of Dreams (for those living outside the Las Cruces area, that is the name of the football stadium for our local high schools).  We went inside to wait for the start.

I really need to talk just a bit about the weather.  The normal weather for our area this time of year is for the highs to be in the 50"s.  The forecast for race day was cold, high about 40 degrees and some showers.  

Inside there were hundreds of runners of various levels milling around.  I felt a little out of place with what were obviously higher level runners.  But I just stood there, trying to calm down.

So the call came for the half-marathoners to line up for the start.

And we were off!

Of course, the "real" runners took off and left me way behind. But I had decided before the race that I would just run my race and not worry about the others so I just chugged along.  Eventually I started passing some of the people who had took off to fast and now had to walk.  I stuck to my plan to take a glucose tablet every two miles to maintain my blood sugar levels.  And I was just cruising along.  It was a little chilly but I was dressed appropriately and really wasn't feeling the coild.

Then I hit the 10 mile water stop.

I got my cup of water, and in attempting to throw my cup away, I stepped off the pavement and...

This is not me.  But it shows what happened to me.

But I got up, brushed off my knees (and face and elbows) and continued running.  I took about 5 steps and realized I had developed a nose bleed.  Now when you are running your blood is pumping a little faster and so the nose bleed a little faster.  I tried running while pinching my nose but that does make breathing a little difficult and breathing is sort of important when you are running.  So I just let it bleed and wiped it when necessary.  Made for a rather bloody shirt and pair of gloves.


But with three miles to go, I wasn't go to let a silly bloody nose stop me.

Eventually, I made it to the finish line in 2:40.

I know that it looks like I am walking in this picture but I really was running.

If you look carefully at this picture, you can see my nose is bleeding.  But I had other war wounds after my up close encounter with the road.

Yep, I gave my all for this run.

As for my two goals for this race, I was far from the last one over the finish line and I did run every step of the race.  Except, that is, when I was laying flat on my face.