“I’m super-girl & I’m here to save the world, but I wanna know, who’s gonna save me..”
The shadows danced throughout the school bus as the moonlight poured into the windows. The anticipation was leaking from everyone's pores. The occupants on the bus were surprisingly quiet, most listening to their music getting pumped for the race. I sat next to a 29 year old girl who has run this marathon a few times and has qualified for Boston. She wasn't too chatty but humored my questions about the course.
I was on one of the last buses to reach the top of the canyon. I joined the throngs of people lining up at the Port-a-Potties. It was a bit chilly up there but the excitement of the runners warmed up the scene.
That's when the race started!!!!! I couldn't believe it really started. The lines to the bathroom quickly became smaller. This race is chip timed. Meaning we have a chip on our shoe which is unique to our start and stop time when we cross the start and finish line. So I wasn’t worried that it had started. That’s when the announcer said: “WE ARE CLOSING THE ROAD!” What?! I hurried and used the potty, ripped off my warmer clothes revealing my super-girl outfit and took off running.
I was told by the professionals to take the first half of the course easy; that you will make up for it the second half -Dumb idea. I took my time and was still passing hundreds of people. I wish they would just move out of the way, like passing in a car. Instead the quicker ones would have to run off the pavement through the weeds to pass the slower folks.
I saw many people I had grown up with on the sides of the road cheering us on. And many who I didn’t know shouted and cheered for SUPER-GIRL! This was very helpful since the second half of the race I was in a lot of pain. My knee was killing me and so were my shins. I didn’t warm-up nor stretch and I was really feeling it! But hey, i beat my old time by 10 min. :]
