Rockin and Rollin

It's done. I've completed my first marathon. It's an amazing feeling of accomplishment (and also of soreness - ha - it's a completely different level). And, while I didn't have the best run (I had deblitating cramps that forced me to walk a lot toward the end), I'm still glad that I did it.

Let me take you back. On Friday, I got up for our (Ash and my) last breakfast at Palmer's on St. Simons Island. We ate TONS and, and before you knew it, I had to head out to Jacksonville to pick up my friend and former co-worker Erika, who was flying in from Boston for the race. GREAT TO SEE HER!!

We headed back to Brunswick and visited with some people that Erika hadn't seen in a while. Then it was time to head to the expo in Savannah.

It took us an hour to get there ... then it took almost another hour to get to the expo location on Hutchison Island. There were literally hundres of cars waiting to get in ... this was the first indication that this Rock in Roll event (the first for Savannah) was going to be a challenge.

We finally arrived at the expo and met up with Ashley and Julio. I picked up a couple of cute shirts - one is Auburn themed - as well as our race packet ... our numbers, etc. Always a good time.

From there, we checked into the hotel which was out near the airport ... about a 20 min. drive from the starting line. But we had a bus pass (a $20 bus pass) that would allow us to be picked up and dropped off at the start line. More on that later.

But that evening we did dinner at a great local restaurant called Sol. It was a fusion joint with a lot of local flare and big bold flavors. I had the thai shrimp flatbread. Delicious. It was also tucked away enough that the 80,000 folks in town for the race didn't know about it. Score.

Very soon, it was time to get back and go to bed. I laid out all of my stuff for my5 a.m. wake-up. I do this for every race!

Funny story about the race number. The fast folks are lower numbers. And considering that there were more than 20,000 racers, 1056 was a low number. I am not fast and don't claim to be. So how did this happen? Apparently, I put 4:30 as my PACE when I intended to put four hours and thirty minutes ... as my finish time. Whoops. It didn't really matter. It was just funny. I was just supposed to be in coral 1 - the "elite runners" who get to start off first. My "group" finished the full marathon while I was hitting the half way point. LOL.

Me and Ash before the race. We were wearing out "throw away" sweat suits. Ash's sweat shirt is from the Holiday Inn ... so OF COURSE, she took tape and wrote "Hotel Motel" above it. Classic.

OK so back to those buses. We met-up at 5:45 Saturday morning for the race. We got on the bus but apparently the driver had NO idea where to drop us ... so we rode around and around and around. Not that we were upset - it was warm in there and about 50 degrees outside. But still. Major disorganization.

Finally made it to the start line and got the race under way. Here's a shot from the start line.

Here we go ...
I was in coral 15 with Ashley (where I belonged) so we didn't get to start until 45 minutes after the race had officially begun.

Fast forward like 5 hours. Seriously. Five hours. And I was here. Granted we did the Galloway method. We also stopped to use the bathroom several times, we stopped to chat and take pictures with folks - our shirts were super popular and then I had to fight off two terrible cramps in my hamstrings. I had to walk most of miles 22 to 24. So even though I didn't make my "goal time" 4:30-ish, I am still proud that I finished and was able to walk/hobble around. I wasn't "crippled" like many are ... so that was good.

Anyway, here's my big finish courtesy of my sweet husband.

I was pretty stoked.

We got SO MANY people who complimented us on our shirts. Prob. the most popular shirts in the race. I can't even tell you how many times someone ran past me and said, "honey badger don't give a shit."
Awesome.

The sign really put it over the top. Josh and Julio carried this around with them when they were waiting for us to finish. Hilarious. They were also popular.

Loves it.

After the race, we hung out in the park, downtown. I'll be honest, I've never been so happy just to sit the f--k down and we had a beer too so ... even better. Then we had to walk another half mile, seriously, because Josh had parked there. I was SO ready to kill him. Even so, I didn't have enough energy for homicide that day. Instead, we went back to the hotel to chill until dinner - Ruth Chris. Oh yeah. We had a fantatstic night ... eating, drinking and hobbling around.

We headed back to the hotel around 10 p.m. and I was out. DONE.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel then headed downtown with Josh for more hobbling. We had lunch in City Market then went home. Later that afternoon, Erika and Louie stopped in to say hello/goodbye.

From then to now (Monday), it's just been more chilling and hobbling. But overall, I'm still glad I did it. I think.