My heart bleeded, girl

So we're home from Ohio. Larry and I drove to Cincinnati so he could go to the Great Lakes burn meeting Thursday, then Ashley picked me up at noon on Friday and we drove to Dayton, picked up our race packets, checked into our hotel, and then went to the pre-race pasta dinner at the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum. The dinner was set up in the middle of the museum, which is a huge hanger with planes all over the place, including a huge-ass B-52, which is the plane that's on the finishers medals for the race this year. I took a ton of pictures, but the lighting sucked, as do my camera skills, so they're all too dark to see anything.

Then Larry drove from Cincy to Dayton and joined us at the hotel. Ashley and I got up at 4:30 Saturday morning and got ready for the race.

The full marathon and 10K started at 7:15 and the half started at 8:30. This is such a nice race, very calm and well-organized without being a huge production. There were 12,000 people participating this weekend. There were parking issues - the starting and finish lines are by the museum. The 10K and the half is pretty much just on the base and the surrounding highways, although the full goes out into the town of Fairborn. But because it's an Air Force base, there are limited access roads, and so the lines of cars to get in and park were long and slow. We were there at 6 and had plenty of time, because we worry about logistics. There were a lot of full and 10K runners who came hurrying up to the start line 10-15 minutes after the race started, though.

There is always a flyover at the start line, usually whatever plane is featured on the medal. So, yes, there was a B-52 flyover, and apparently it costs a bit to get one of those things in the air, so it stayed up a while and did about five flyovers. What an enormous plane, and wow, how impressive when it's swooping down over your head.

So Ash got started at 7:15 and I stood around and shivered until the half started at 8:30.

*sigh* I joked to Ashley that the universe owes me a good race. I can only hope that the universe is saving that good race for the full marathon in Disney this coming January, because this weekend certainly wasn't it.

I was so ready for this one. I ran 12 miles last Sunday at a 10:30 pace and it was a wonderful run. I tapered, I was well-rested, I was hydrated, I had eaten just right. Everything was perfect.

Except, apparently, the pollen count. And also when the sun came up, it was in the mid-80s and there's not a lot of shade on an Air Force base. (The full marathon course spent some time on a runway, which Ash thought was awesome until she realized there is *no* shade on a runway. She said it was like running across a desert.)

I kept up with the 2:20 pace group until mile 4. By mile 5, the 2:30 pace group had passed me, and then I stopped to use my inhaler. I used it again at mile 6, and at mile 6.5 there was a medical tent, where I wheezed my way into a chair. I was pissed and upset, which didn't help, so then I did a lot of breathing in though my nose and out through my mouth. The nurse there thought maybe I should quit, but the nice Air Force doctor told me he was a fan of perseverance, and since the full and the half met back up with three miles to go and shared a finish line, I had 6 hours to finish if I really needed it. And there was no way I was going home without finishing.

So after about 20 minutes of resting and repeatedly being offered water that never materialized, I started walking and breathing carefully and decided that it was a gorgeous day with a lovely, cool breeze to go along with the burning sun, and there were lots of interesting people to watch, so I would just enjoy the last half of the race and not be upset.

At mile 8, the half marathon went across an overpass that was adjacent to another overpass where the full marathon was chugging along at their mile 21. It just so happened that's where Ashley was, so we yelled back and forth at each other for a while. She was tired and after having stayed with the 4:00 pace group for the first 16 or so miles had fallen back a bit. She actually ended up walking the last 6 miles, although she still finished in 4:20.

Anyway, I realized I was carrying on a shouted conversation while walking up an overpass without wheezing, so I started running again at mile 9. I felt fine, although I was going at an 11:30 pace, but got wheezy again at around mile 12. At mile 13 I used my inhaler again, and then ran the last 0.1 mile, which was through a gauntlet of fighter jets parked on either side of the finishing chute and is my favorite part. There was no way I wasn't running across the finish line.

Then an nice uniformed officer put my medal around my neck and I wheezed "thank you" at her, grabbed a bottle of water and found a patch of grass to sit and drink. Then I made my way through the food tent, got a banana, more water, pizza and a beer and found Ashley, who had finished her race about fifteen minutes before me.

Without Erin there to rush us along, we hung out until we were rested, then walked about ten miles, it seemed, back to the car, and drove to Ashley's house in Oxford, where Larry was waiting for us.

My official time was 3:15, almost an hour longer than I hoped for. I won't deny I'm disappointed, but mostly I'm over it. I would just once like my time to reflect how fast I actually ran, instead of how much time I spent in the medical tent, or waiting in line at the porta-johns, or walking because I couldn't breathe.

Let's recap:

January - Disney marathon, quit at mile 20 because of shin splints.
April - Pizza and Wings 10K, quit at mile 2 because of my very first asthma attack.
May - Cincinnati Flying Pig half marathon - walked last 5 miles because I couldn't catch my breath after big-ass hill.
May - Columbus Race For the Cure - ran a pretty decent 5K and only needed my inhaler after it was over.
July - Whiskey Rebellion 5K - ran one block and quit because of intestinal issues.
August - was not stupid enough to attempt a race in August.
September - see above.

Training runs throughout June, July, August and September - MOSTLY AWESOME.

I think I need a different medication. My inhaler doesn't seem to actually work, even when I use it before I run as a preventative.

But, as usual, Ashley and I had a fabulous time together, and I'm quite happy, really.

Larry's sister, who lives in Indiana, came to Ashley's yesterday and we all went out to dinner and spent the night. This morning we went out to breakfast, then Larry and I left for Columbus to have lunch with Erin and Nic. Too bad nobody told us that the Tenth Circle of Hell 270 was closed in about three different places, and so was the particular back road we needed to get to Erin's house. It is definitely high construction season. But we made it without Larry having too much chest pain, had lunch, then got back to Pittsburgh around 6 this evening, after sitting through more construction on 70.

There's been a stray cat hanging around Erin's parking lot for the past month, and Erin thought maybe she got hit by a car, because her left front leg was injured. Erin took her to the vet last week and had her spayed and they amputated her leg. She's recuperating at Erin's until next week and then Ashley is going to take her. Ash has named her Seth, but Erin's been calling her Tripod. I think I like that better. Anyway, we met her today and she is the sweetest thing ever. We hope she'll keep Ash company and stop her from uprooting her life and moving to Boulder on a whim.

Adam and Neville got along quite well while we were gone, in spite of Adam not being a dog person. Well, it's Neville, even Adam can't resist him.

And this is one long post, and Firefox is threatening to crash, so I better get it posted.