And the results are in....

We woke up this morning to a horrendous thunderstorm - as in *something* in our neighborhood got hit by lightning, and the thunderclap about knocked us out of bed. I checked the radar, and it was ugly. I was getting worried about whether or not there was even going to be a race, but as I checked the website, they were determined to continue. We got ready and took off to Wichita, running a bit behind. We got to the start line about 15 minutes before the race began - and it was raining.

The Dude and the boys hung out at the start line until we took off, and then he took them out to breakfast. The original plan was to let them play on the playground near the start/finish line, but well, the rain killed that one.

It rained for probably the first 7-8 miles - and it wasn't always a nice gentle rain, either. There were some out-and-out downpours, and I ran through ankle-deep water more than once on the route. I ended up having to take my glasses off and jammed them into my shirt because of the rain, so I was literally running blindly for a while. The rain finally stopped around mile 9ish, which is about when I started to lose my steam. My body has never been one to handle bad weather, so I was miserable by the end.

Anyway, here are the pictures....

I was exhausted at the end. Completely and totally exhausted. And so sore. My hips were killing me, my ankles were sore, and my underarms were rubbed raw. My feet were starting to cramp so the boys helped me to get my wet shoes and socks off of my feet so that I could walk around barefoot for a while, and The Dude went and got the van so that I wouldn't have to walk too far. Of course, since I was soaked to the bone (even my underwear was wet) I was cold, and the only dry thing that we had in the van was his jacket. His Cowboys jacket. I had to swallow my pride and cover myself with it for the ride home, and of course he was loving every single second of it. Jerk. :P

And of course, the medal that all participants received. It's pretty cool this year - has kind of a stained glass effect to it.

So anyway....I guess you want the results. I had a few goals when I started:

(1.) Finish vertically and not in a body bag.
(2.) Beat my time from last year, which was 3:12:32.
(3.) Finish in under 3 hours.

Obviously, I met Goal #1, and I finished.
I met Goal #2 with a final time of 3:12:05 - I beat last year's time by 27 seconds.
I didn't meet Goal #3.

When I first started out, I was doing really well - but the weather really created problems for me, and honestly, at one point I wasn't sure that I could even finish. So, while I'm somewhat disappointed that I didn't improve more, I'm still happy with the results.

I have to give a very special shout-out to The Dude. He has been so wonderful to me throughout all of this - from putting up with me going out to run instead of spending time with him, to getting up in the wee hours of the morning to go with me to races, to watching the kids while I run, to giving me pep talks and constantly supporting and encouraging me - I just can't thank him enough. I'm not sure how I got so lucky, but I'm going to enjoy it and not question it. Thanks, babe, and I love you!