Soon after our all-girl’s teams had been
announced last month, my team heard about an upcoming race in Phuket. In an act
of new-team bonding, we decided we would run it together. Some of us would do
the 5k, some the 10k and Kendra and Jen would run the half-marathon. When we
arrived, however, we discovered that the cost of the race was too expensive. Most
of us didn’t care that much – in reality, many of us were relieved. We’d much
prefer to layout on the beach than actually move. Jen was pretty bummed though.
There is a beautiful dam by our residence, and it
has a trail that circles around it. One lap around the trail is approximately
4.5 miles (7k), making three laps around the trail a half marathon. Jen decided
that if she couldn’t partake in the Phuket half-marathon, she would make her
own dam race.
She set the date for Saturday, June 19, and
invited all of us to join her. Some of us were a bit wishy-washy at first, but
Kendra teamed up with Jen and they started to make the race a big deal. They
had t-shirts made with a race logo on it that Kendra designed. They planned a
spaghetti dinner the night before the race. They made us individual race
packets and bought ice cream for all of us after the race. The more excited
they became about it, the more we wanted to do it. It didn’t take long for all
18 of us to sign up.
The race options were either a 7k or the
half-marathon. All of us except Jen and Kendra committed to the 7k. The funny
part about this is that those of us who were running the 7k acted like we were
actually running the half-marathon.
The night before the race we carbo-loaded on
bread and spaghetti. I should tell you that before the World Race I went to the
gym often and would be on the treadmill for good four or so miles. Never once
did I “carbo-load” before those workouts…they just weren’t that big of a deal. But
this time was different – this was a half-marathon (even though it was really
only 4.5 miles).
The day of the race we all asked Jen and Kendra lots
of questions – what should we eat for breakfast? When is the latest we should eat
before the race? Is it true that we should prop our feet up for a few hours? What
stretches should we do? What does our recovery program look like? I took all of their advice to heart and attempted to
mentally prepare myself for the half-marathon (slash 7K).
Due to the heat of the day the race was set to
start at 5 o’clock in the evening. At 4:30 we all left in our running shorts
and tennis shoes and headed over to the dam. I made sure to drink lots of
water.
We lined up and took off running at the same time
– I chose the song “Don’t Stop Believing” on my iPod to start me off. I would
not stop believing that I would finish this half-marathon! …slash 7k.
Welp, I finished it (as did everyone else). We
sat in the grass and wiped the sweat off our brows as we waited for Jen and
Kendra to finish the half-marathon they were actually running. When they came
around the finish line we held up signs and cheered them on. It was a beautiful
moment – a team-bonding moment indeed.
After the race we walked home, ate, showered, and
put on pajamas. There is a cozy room in our residence – it has couches and
mattresses and a television (big whoop!) We ended our race day by watching a
movie, giving each other facials, and painting our nails. We felt like we were
in middle school again, and we loved it.
So yeah. Girl-month is pretty much rocking.
