White Rock 2010

This post is going to be chalk full of pictures and movies. 

 I had the wonderful opportunity to run with my bestfriend Cindy in her first marathon.  We had such a great time and she did AWESOME!! And when I say awesome, I mean she kicked some serious a$$.  I was so impressed with her.

I picked Cindy up at 0515 because we were worried about traffic (there were many notices that came out from the race saying parking would be an issue).  As we left Cindy's house she asked if we could pop into Chick Filet for some sort of fried breakfast item.  I asked if she was messing with me and she assured me she wasn't.  I asked if she usually ate greasy food before her runs and she said she didn't.  I think it was the incredulous look on my face, Cindy decided against the greasy food. OMG that girl makes me laugh.  So we headed to Fair Park, we had no problem getting there or finding parking and, thanks to Cindy's eagle eye we landed ourselves some "Rock Star" parking (close to the front).  Eventually we decided on our attire and headed out.  We met up with another Running Mom: Morgan.  Morgan was running the 1/2 marathon and as luck would have it was planning on running our pace so, we were able to run together for the first 5 miles or so.

Cindy, Morgan and I before the start.

The start was an absolute mess.  It was ridiculously cold and it took our corral almost an hour to get to the starting line.  I know you think I must have made a typo but I assure you nothing is wrong with my typing.  It took 1hr to get to the starting line.  Brrrrrrr...and...Errrrrrrr....... Once we got there we were off and really motivated to run.

Can you see the crowd?  There were over 20,000 runners this year.

 We ran the first 5 miles with Morgan.  We settled into a nice pace and just cruised along.  Cindy had to use the restroom around mile 5 and so Morgan continued on and we stopped for a very brief moment (I adore Cindy so no more will be said on this subject). 

Cindy and I around the 1/2

 Cindy was doing awesome at the 1/2 way mark and we actually cranked down the pace just a bit.  I was super impressed.  I was also amazed at the amount of food one little woman could eat during a marathon.  I think she ate: a granola bar, two sleeves of chews, an Oreo, a snickers, a gazillion orange slices, and there has to be more I am forgetting.  She stayed on top of her nutrition and hydration and it paid off.

She didn't show any signs of slowing down until the last 6 miles and dang if she didn't keep herself going.  She wouldn't even let herself stop for water at the last few aid stations because she was worried she wouldn't want to run again.  She just powered on through.  Somewhere in the last 6 miles we really got on the negative splits and cranked the pace down even more.  I don't recall anyone passing us during the second half of the race, we just cruised on by people as she picked it up.  She ran the perfect first marathon.  Negative splits.  Killed her goal.  Had a great time.  Left NOTHING on the course.  Her time was 4:22.  Man oh man we were both overcome at the finish line, I was so proud of her it brought tears to my eyes and she was so happy she was crying, it was an AWESOME moment.  It was truly an honor to get to experience this race with Cindy. 

Check out the videos if you want to see more of the race. 

Cindy heading for the finish

Cindy getting her first marathon finishers medal

Cindy and I with our medals