Miles 10-19

Erica and I arrived at mile 10 to the smiling face of her parents, my mother and Taylor, and many other excited fans. At this point, I was still feeling pretty good. Exhibit A (me looking like a mental patient):



In fact, the first 10 miles of the race literally flew by and before we knew it, we were into our second out and back, headed north for what I had imagined - knowing Nashville and having studied the race route - to be the more boring part of the race.

Sure enough, miles 11-19 would prove to be the turning point for me. For starters, this was where the chipper little half marathoners veered off and made a bee-line for the finish line while we had 15 more miles to go!!! In addition, mile 11 was one long hill, during which we left the crowds of spectators and the lush, tree covered streets of Vanderbilt behind. It was around mile 11 through 13 when I became acutely aware that not only was the temperature steadily climbing, but the sun was coming out and there was no longer any shade to provide relief. Mile 12 saw us entering the office-building capital of Nashville, known as MetroCenter. On a Saturday, as you might imagine, Metro Center was about as dead as dead could be. Except for the lovely water stop volunteers, we really had very little company out there.

I take that back, as I turned the corner and began to approach mile 12, there WAS a group of nuns....yes, nuns....cheering for us. It was quite a sight!!!

Miles 13-15 are a blur of hot pavement, narrow paths, and quiet struggle. At one point a nice man from Birmingham came up next to me and could probably see my resolve weakening and he began to talk to me about New York City (I was wearing a New York City Chapter TNT jersey). However, he quickly realized that I was virtually unable to return his chipper conversation and - thanks to absolutely no training in the heat - would probably be walking soon.

Sure enough, at around mile 15.5, I had to take a moment to walk and catch my breath. I began to run again at the water stop and felt a little better, that is until I noticed that there was a HUGE HILL in mile 16!!! This was probably the low point of the race for me. Erica had long since left me in the dust and I was beginning to realize that I had 10 miles left in the sweltering heat before I could even think about relaxing. I walked a little up this big hill and was passed by one of my teammates, Kara, whom I had shared a cab with earlier in the season. Kara asked how I was doing and I flat out-lied that I was fine!! In fact, the two of us actually took turns passing one another, walking periodically through the next two miles.

At mile 19, I found myself slightly ahead of Kara and suddenly accompanied by one of our coaches, Steve!! Steve came up beside me and asked how I was. To which I replied again "Great!" I think he could see that I was struggling (who wasn't) and he reminded me to focus on my arms (to take my mind off my feet), drink lots of water, dump water on my head (to keep cool), and, most of all, keep a positive attitude. It was the last thing he told me, though, that really caused me to perk up. He said "You'll see Kiernan walking up ahead in just a minute."

Now, keep in mind that at this point, I thought Kiernan was way up ahead of me. Well, it turns out that her hip (which had been bothering her periodically all season) was acting up and I was about to catch up with my running partner!!! Just as I saw Kiernan come into view, I was joined by Kara who had just caught up with me.

Kara said, "I'm just going to stick with you." and as we approached Kiernan together, we made eye contact and the relief that flooded my friend's face was evident. The three of us looked at each other and in a moment that will forever be etched in my mind, Kier gathered her resolve and said, "We're going to finish this fucking race together."

I'll leave you with this image before I finish with my final race post. That's me, our mentor Deb, Kiernan and Kara from left to right. I love the determination in Kiernan in this photo!

Click here to continue to the rest of the race and the FINISH LINE!!