(#41A) Lady Speed Stick Women’s Half Marathon AZ (Nov. 4, 2012) – Part 3 (The Morning Craziness, Pt. 3 – So, Then I Get a Cab Involved?)

November 9, 2012

Picking up from last time

At this point, I know there is no way that I’m going to be able to jog back the 2 1/2 miles, and get back on the course, and catch up and finish before the time limit. Unfortunately, I’m not that fast (yet).

I called a cab to take me to somewhere around mile marker 4.

I wait about 10 or so minutes for the cab. Then, we end up going the wrong way twice (and not realizing for a bit each time). I guess he’s new to Arizona. I certainly didn’t know the city at all. He was an incredibly sweet man, but we were a mess trying to figure out where we were going.

We realize that the mile marker we’re hoping to see is on a path where cars can’t go. Also, by this time between the waiting and the driving, we’ve wasted all the time I made up and then some.

I desperately don’t want to cheat. I also don’t want to just give up, go back to the hotel, and spend a billion dollars on cabs this morning for nothing. I ask him to go ahead and take me to mile marker 5 (which we believe is a place a car can go). I’ll try to make up the missing distance by running some circles later on, or figuring it out somehow. At least I’ll be on the path (know where I’m going) and have water, Gatorade, and such.

Well, the next place we end up finding that has runners is toward the end of mile 6! Rargh, rargh, rargh.

I want so badly to try to go back farther, but we both (the cab drive and I) have apparently no clue where we are ever, a bunch of roads around us are closed, and quite frankly, I’m out of cash. I only grabbed so much as I was running out the door. I didn’t expect the morning ride to cost $43 (gulp), or tow have a second ride in the middle of the race.

At that point, I didn’t feel as though I had tons of options. I struggled with whether I should jump in or call it a day and leave the race area.

Even though I knew I would not be counting this as an official half for myself, I wanted to experience this race. I wanted to know if it was one I’d like to do in the future.

I jumped out of the cab and started running.

As I came into the race, I definitely felt the glares. I don’t blame the runners giving them to me. They were working hard, and some girl jumps from a cab onto the course?

I explained what was going on to the people immediately around me, so I could try to release some tension from my area.

How did that go over? Find out tomorrow.

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