I purposely waited to write up my race report because to be quit honest I was freakin' miserable on Sunday after the race. In part because of the number of people. While at points of the day it was a true blessing at the end of the day it was a nightmare.

Pre-race: Not a great night sleep. Really nervous. I never sleep well before any race. This one in particular. Mostly because I knew I was not well prepared at all. My IT band had been acting up so my longest run was about 14 miles. I had no idea how well my knee would hold up but basically I said screw it - we will figure it out. I got up before the alarm went off and got all my stuff together and got dressed. I had brought some Ensure from home and the charity I was running for had breakfast for all their runners so I grabbed a banana. Went down and hopped on to the Metro to get over to the race. We had a tent that was set up so I could drop my stuff off. It was cold in the morning so I was delaying sheading my jacket. I finally HTFU and dropped my jacket to walk to the start line for the opening ceremony. I wasn't sure where I should insert myself so I picked the 5:00 - 5:30 finish corral. The crowd was getting pumped by music and the announcer.

Race time: When the cannon went off it took about 10 - 15 minutes to cross the start line and then we were off. The first three miles were spent trying to warm-up, cursing myself that I didn't run to the port-a-potty again before taking off. The first water stop was between the second and third mile and I got to stop to go to the bathroom. One port-a-potty - I was like are you kidding me? Yes they were because less then a 1/4 mile later there was a whole line of them with NO waiting. Crap! Water stations and port-a-potties were every two miles which actually went by a lot faster than I thought. There were SO many people running and SO many people cheering us on! It was very incredible to see! Many parts of the course we could see other runners coming at us so we were spread out for at least 5 miles or more.

It was a beautiful day - sun was out and 62 degrees and really enjoyable run until about the 15th mile. That is when I slowly started to feel the lack of training. I couldn't believe my IT band was holding out really well. I couldn't believe it mostly because by this time we had hit some small hills and a couple big hills, I felt like I was sailing up. I couldn't believe it - the hills were SO easy even though they didn't look easy.

My nutrition was right on although I think I was a little under hydrated. I was getting some serious chaffing from my shirt and my iPod band and luckly they had vaseline on the course. Each mile after the 15th mile until the 20th I could start feeling my muscles but could push it out of my mind. The crowds and the other Marines around kept me going and could see through the fatigue that was coming. From the 20th mile to about the 22nd mile it was a fight because the crowds weren't up in this area. We were running on the highway. Up until this point I was running every mile and then walking for one minute. When I hit the 20th mile I was running every 5 minutes and walking 1. When I got to the 23rd mile I was running every 3 mintues for every 1 and that is when I started to really feel my IT band. I think my form was so bad and the road so uneven in places that in certain areas I couldn't run. I got to the 24th mile and there were no crowds anymore. No destractions. Just trying to do anything I could to hurry this last portion up except I couldn't hurry up because my IT band was killing every hundred meters. Then there was a guy going around documenting the event and interviewing people and he interviewed me. *Turns out he is a triathlete also (http://runincancun.blogspot.com/) - he has a family of websites and the half marathon in Cancun. I found the interview on Youtube. So if he happens to be on this website...Thank you!*

The last mile I was really trying hard to concentrate on my form so I can run in. The first part of the mile it just didn't seem like I was going to be able to run in but the last 3/4 I just kept telling myself to relax and I could feel my IT Band wanting to hurt more but it stayed at bay and I kept running. Then I got to where Marines were lining the road and the crowd and made the left up the hill praying this was not the hill my band was going to act up on and up I went around the bend and kept going because I was so close and I just wasn't going to walk across and then I hit the finish line! 6:00:00 exactly! I got my wrap and my medal and my picture.

Post-race: I really couldn't take everything in at that time because as soon as I crossed the finish line I was thinking about how to hook up with my family because I didn't see them at all on the course. I didn't have my cell phone to contact them and the number of people was incredible. I got back to the tent and borrowed a cell to figure out where my family was. This is when the nightmare began. Once I finally found them there was NO LESS than a two hour wait for transportation! After running 26.2 miles, my husband who was running around with two kids and no luck of seeing me, we had to wait another two hours before we could get back to the hotel and then we still have to drive three hours home! I would say post race was the worst part! On that day I would have told you I would NEVER do it again...but today...the story is changing.