St. Patrick’s Day Five Mile “Run”

Yesterday on my lunch break I walked over to the hotel to pick up my race day shirt.  It kind of hurt my feelings that the ladies extra-large size probably wouldn’t fit over my arm.  I realize that I am “over blessed” in the chest but sometimes it’s still difficult to have to get the man sized shirt just to fit over my ginormous boobs.  I was so confident right up to that point that she handed me the green runner’s shirt.  I began to feel that little nervous lump swell my throat.  It clicked in my head that I actually signed up for FIVE mile race.  I called my little sister to make sure I would have some backup.  She had my back as usual. We decided to have fun and went and got our nails done in funky colors. 

Then we went to the beauty supply store because I wanted a pretty flower or something green to put in my hair.  And then I saw it, the green hair weave!  Somehow I managed to talk my little sister over the edge with me.  We went over my Big Little sister’s house who happens to be a hairstylist and she added the green streaks of hair for us.  Mardi the surprise dog is doing just fine in his new home.  My sister told me the other day that when she awoke from her nap both of her babies who are being potty trained had pooped in the floor!  What a mess!  LOL!

This morning my Little Sister and I caught the Metrolink train downtown.  I was a little worried that we had gone overboard with the green hair, but that was before I saw the green ballerina tutu’s, green leggings and green clover shaped antennas on people’s heads.  We fit in perfectly.  There was however this really strange guy on the train that kept telling my sister he would perform CPR on her.  Still not sure why he thought that was necessary…  You never know what you’re going to get on public transportation. 

We got off at the Busch Stadium stop but we were both too scared to use the Porter potties, so we ran over to my job to use the nice indoor restroom.  And who did we see on the elevator?  None other than the partner of the law firm I work for!  I’m sure he now wonders what sort of person I am on the weekend with green hair, green nails and lime green eye shadow.  I wanted to tell him, really I bought all this stuff last night I don’t even own green accessories.  He was pretty nice as usual and wished us luck on our run.  Once we were back outside, I explained to my little sister that the serious competitive runners go first and then the walkers follow behind.  She was so frustrated that we were walking.  I kept trying to explain to her that I’ve only trained to walk, not run my half marathon.  She still wanted to run, since “everybody else was.”  We jogged for about half a mile before I ran out of gas.  We may have done a few more quick spurts, but I am really not in shape for running.  We walked the rest of the way.  I kind of wish I hadn’t burnt myself out in the beginning so that I could of kept up a faster more steady pace throughout the entire race.  There were so many fun characters to see, people in homemade go carts, newlyweds decked out in a wedding dress and a tuxedo followed by beer cans on strings tied around their waist.  One group was even tied together and ran like one giant snake through the crowd.  My pregnant co-worker had on a shirt that said “Does this Baby Make me look Fat?”  Hilarious!  We had a lot of fun. 

 Our green hair got a lot of attention and looks.  By the time we got to the last mile I was pretty tired of walking.  Finally we saw the finish line.  My sister said there was no way that she would walk across the finish line so we picked up our pace and ran through with great pride as if we had run the entire five miles.  One guy was so inspired that he ran with us. One of my fellow LLS Team in Training members took a great finish line picture of me and my sister.  At first I didn’t like it because I looked fat.  But then I realized maybe someone else can look at me and see themselves and say “if Carli can do it so can I.” My goals were to finish the entire race, not finish last, not pass out, and have fun.  Mission accomplished.

Today’s race was quite the learning experience.  I realized that I am not quite ready for my half marathon.  I’ve been so busy most evenings this week working on a seemingly failing “investment” that I haven’t had time for nightly workouts.  People have said to me you look hung over, you look tired, my mom nicely said maybe you should put on some eyeliner.  I’ve talked to both my realtor and my accountant and it looks like I’m stuck with what I got so I am trying to work hard and make the best of it.  I realized today, I was working hard on my investment at the expense of my training.  I have to find the right balance.  I guess I will have to try and squeeze in some morning workouts, and not stay up till midnight (or later) watching TV.  But I know I can’t feel as sluggish as I felt today during my real race.  My sister and I planned out a tentative schedule where we should get in at least 5 workouts a week.  All in all I realized that I’ve come a really long way.  This time last year I would not have even considered even signing up for five mile race and now I’ve actually completed one!
Half marathon here I come!