13.1… DONE!

by Blue Tapp Scheffer

Well we did it! Yesterday, Craig and I ran the GO! St. Louis Half Marathon. It was difficult, as always, to run 13.1 miles, and not without pain. But we did it! And it was a fantastic experience.

We had already planned to run slowly. Neither of us felt well-trained for this year’s race. My bronchitis, the early hot weather, and then my allergies all conspired together to sabotage my grand training plans. My last “long” run had been eight miles almost a month before. And I hadn’t run 10 miles since my exuberant first post in this blog back in February. This would be the least conditioned I’d ever attempted to run a half marathon.

To add to our worries, yesterday morning as Craig was pulling on his running clothes, his occasional recurring back injury flared up. I heard his panicked “oh no!” and knew from his pained expression what happened. This could certainly end his race before it began.

But he is a stubborn Navy Seal and what is a touch of excruciating back pain to stand in the way of a race we’ve trained for since January?! We picked up my brother and headed downtown.

The weather was sublime. High fifties and cloudless before the 7:00 a.m. race start. I did my requisite porta-potty visit (after waiting in the long lines for 25 minutes) and then gathered with 17,000 other runners in the starting area along Market Street – a five block long roped off area divided into running paces. The fastest runners at the front and the slowest along with the walkers in the back. Craig and I usually begin in the 10:00 mile area but today we moved further back far behind the last marked pace sign of 11:00 minute miles.

We’d never started the race this far back before and the mood here was decidedly different than in the faster sections. People seemed more relaxed, less nervous, playful. They were not worried one bit about when that starting gun would sound. Afterall it would take us over 15 minutes from the gun start until we actually worked our way up to the starting line. 17,000 people is a LOT of people.

And we were off! And running very slowly… our final average pace was 11.9 minute miles, almost a full two minutes slower than our usual pace. Craig’s back was hurting but loosened up a bit as we ran and we really enjoyed the run. The weather could not have been better and the run course is scenic (although a bit hilly) through downtown St. Louis and Forest Park.

According to plan we walked through all seven water stops, drinking water and Gatorade. We had given ourselves permission to walk whenever we needed to during the race. We were both in some pain during the last several miles but besides the water stops, we walked only once up the final long hill at the 12 mile marker.

10 minutes before we reached the finish line I asked Craig if he planned to do a final burst of speed at the end. “I don’t think so,” he said and I said that was fine with me! But as we closed in on those final yards we couldn’t help ourselves. We sped up and finished at all out sprint. Craig grabbed my hand and we raised our arms in victory as we crossed the finish line (I hope they captured that on film!).

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people line the race course every year, cheering on the runners. Many hold signs with encouraging or funny adages. My favorite this year, held by a young boy sitting on the sideline with his parents, stated “If it was easy, I’d be doing it!” That’s the crux of it for me. It’s not easy at all to run that far. But the pain and challenge of it gives it meaning for me and for Craig. The more difficult the challenge, the more victorious we feel at the finish. And that is why we’ll do it all over again this October at the Lewis & Clark Half Marathon.