"Dash" for Donation

This morning's half-marathon Dash for Donation in Columbus felt more like a "Drag Yourself 13.1 miles" for Donation. There was not a whole lot of dashing going on. Em and I headed up to Columbus Friday night for a pre-race carb fest with Suz and Anita. We had a super fun dinner with my Mom and aunt. Then it was early to bed for our 5:30am wake-up call. After a horrid night of sleep (paranoid about not waking up in time), I popped out of bed in the early hours and prepared for the race.

I was really excited about my race outfit. After the disaster of my Blast outfit (see earlier posts) I wanted to be sure I made some better choices. The race started at 7am (EARLY) so I thought it would still be cool enough to run in a t-shirt rather than a tank. Back in our Flying Pig days, the wonderfully talented MA* made running tees that are amazing (lack of the proper cord prevents me from posting a pic). The shirts are white v-neck C-9 moisture wicking from Target. On the front is the CinWeekly logo, with As Seen In CinWeekly, as a nod to our CinWeekly blog. On the back she hand-drew the logos for all our favy-fave running products: ipod, honey stinger, gu, g2, and sport beans. The shirt is amazing (thank you MA*) and I have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to rock it in a race. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of it's race day appearance because Em and I were too tired at 6am to think of bringing a camera and this minimalist race did NOT include photographers (secretly grateful after the Blast disast).

I was prepared with a cute outfit and a fairly optimistic attitude going into the 13.1. Just before the race started they announced it was actually a loop course WITH a turn around. So basically we ran out on a course, did a turn-around, ran back on the course, looped around and did the entire thing again. PAINFUL! I am such a mental runner that running the same course basically 4 times is NOT something I can get excited about. I held on strong for the first loop, but after 6.5 I just couldn't get confident about the course. I ended up finishing in decent time, especially considering how low my spirits were. It was a TOUGH course, though very pretty in the parts where we ran along the river. But I am not sure I would want to do this race again. The best part about the Pig was that it was one BIG loop, no backtracking. I have seen other marathons which have more doubling-back (I think Nashville might be like this) and it makes me nervous. Either I have to find a way to keep my confidence up going into round TWO on a course, or I have to avoid these situations in the future.

Either way in the end, I finished my half-marathon, I got a rather ugly Dash for Donation tee, and I earned myself TWO rest days. Tonight going out for the first time in ages, woohoo! And tomorrow a little culture when I attend the opera, ooh-la-la.