Picking up from yesterday –
After my phone went flying out of my pocket, I just left it there! That was probably wildly stupid because, you know, it’s an iPhone. But I was like “meh, it’s backed up. It’s locked with a passcode. I have ‘find my iPhone.’ I’m upgrading in a week anyway. I have to finish this race under 3 hours!”
So I just keep running, not even breaking my stride. I cross the finish and I just every so slightly want to throw up a little. (I know that’s ridiculous for such a slow half marathon time, but for me, I was working really hard!) But don’t worry. I did not throw up at all.
I tried to keep it together as much as possible. If for no other reason, because people were watching. And I’ve heard from people who watching runners accomplish a half or full marathon is what makes them want to try it, because seeing all those excited finishers is so inspiring. But I heard from one person that they went to a finish and saw everyone throwing up and breaking down and it made them never want to do it. And I can’t be the vision in someone’s mind that makes them not want to run.
Not to mention, even if I had wanted to vomit, there was no time for that! I turned around immediately, walking outside the finish line, and I went and grabbed my phone (which thankfully was still there). Then I went back to the finish, grabbed some water, and got focused on finding the results booth. I was so ready to see that I had done it. I knew I had to be close!
I looked at the results that had been posted. Some around 3 hours had already been posted. There was a person in the booth who checked for people if the person’s results weren’t up yet. I asked about mine. She told me 3 hours and 44 seconds.
(I’ve been saying everywhere that I was 44 seconds off because that number stuck so hard in my mind and hurt so much. But technically, since I wanted to beat 3 hours, I was actually 45 seconds off for those of you keeping score at home.)
I don’t know if I started my app at the wrong time, or if it malfunctioned ’cause I have a very old phone on it’s last leg (that I’m upgrading soon). But the point is, I didn’t make it in time.
I took some upset pictures in the parking lot, then went home and jumped in the shower pretty much groaning the whole time. Who really knows whether it was because my body was sore or because I kept hearing “44 seconds” over and over in my head?
I did go on to realize later that I improved my time on this race from last year by over 46 minutes. (And everyone seems to agree the course changes made this year tougher.) So, that’s good. But keep in mind, last year, I was saving myself for the Goofy Challenge happening the following week. So, it’s not like I’m actually comparing the same amount of effort…
And while we’re talking about my failures with this race, I also totally mucked up social media-wise. Totally didn’t check in on Foursquare (because I always forget to check in, always – which we will talk about later this week). I also was talking to this guy in my corral before we started. I said that I still wasn’t totally getting the hang of instagram and that only one person had liked my pre-race photo.
He was all, “Did you use the official hashtag?” And I hadn’t! I’m a twitter nut. I’m all about hashtags. Why didn’t I think they’d be important on instagram?! But the difference between twitter and instagram is that I could just go comment a hashtag, and it still works. So, we fixed that up. And my pre-race photo ultimately got 17 likes! 🙂
(My post-race one got 37!)
So, onward we trek. Even though I failed this time around, the good news is I definitely see and feel improvement, and all this race really was, was a way to check in with my L.A. Marathon training. Based on these results, I’d say I’m pretty confident in my March goals!