The day was hot, 90 degrees hot, and humid as the race took place on the coast. My leg was 4.69 miles long and would go through the Naval base in Corpus. This was the leg I had wanted to do because I wanted to honer my dad and my nephew. I stood at the hand-off spot, waiting for Johnson to arrive with the baton, watching and listening and waiting, and finally heard our team number announced as Johnson had been spotted and was approaching. I got up to the line, looking out for her and saw her purple singlet, matching mine, approaching down the road. I ran out to meet her, took the baton from her and handed her a bottle of water I had for her, turned around and headed down the road on the first part of my leg. I ran as far as I could, walked when I needed to, and decided I would do my absolute best in the heat with a distance I haven't done very often and wanted to do as quickly as I could.
The Naval base was flat, unshaded, and hot as blazes, but I was filled with the knowledge that I was finally here and achieving a dream I didn't know I would have a year ago. The servicemen lining the route and the volunteers at the water stops and the families who sat on the side of the road and the people who squirted us with water hoses to help us cool down went a long way in encouraging us along, giving us even more support as we traipsed down the road toward our goal, and eventually to our fellow team member who would take our baton and keep up the race. I actually passed people up, people not as big as me, people who looked like they had more business being there than I did, and at one point a woman came up behind me, saying she couldn't do it, she couldn't finish, and we were only about halfway through. I don't know what happened to her, but I hoped she recovered and finished her leg.
I finished my leg in under an hour and fifteen minutes. I saw the hand-off location ahead of me, saw my runner, and gauged how far I could run to make it to her. I took off, ran to her and handed off the baton, then headed to the shuttle. I was talking and laughing with the people in the seats around me, all of us happy to be done and heading to cars, a/c and the finish. Part of me wanted to burst into tears with relief, joy, happiness, pride, whatever you want to call it because I was just so thrilled I accomplished this goal, but I don't think I had enough fluid in my body at that time! I was also thrilled that we were not the last team. I made it to the parking lot, and hubby drove us to the finish line to meet up with the team. Hubby went back to the hotel while I joined up the rest of the team, and we waited for our last runner to arrive. A couple of us went up the sidewalk to look for her, and we eventually saw her running toward us. Johnson, one of the runners, took off to find something with electrolytes, and I joined Lali, the last runner, in bring home the baton. I ran in behind her, just because I wanted to show her my support. We came across the finish, got our finishers medals, took pictures, celebrated, and went to our respective hotels to nap, shower, cool down, etc.
The next day, I was in the elevator with a woman who asked me if I had done Beach to Bay, and it really made me feel good that someone could look at me and NOT think that I could possibly be a runner. And someone referred to me as an "athlete", something I never thought I would ever be called.
This was an amazing experience, and I am already making plans for next year. I so appreciate my husband for helping out with transportation, and his never ending support, and believing in me. I also appreciate the team, and especially my friend Shanon who at first wasn't sure if she could do the race due to an injury, but managed to pull through and did great!
I will be training for the half marathon now, which will take place in November. I know I can do the distance, because I am, after all, a determined runner.
That's all for now, gotta run!
