saturday, the main event

4:45 am came early yesterday. The sleepy half-marathoners got up and dressed and headed out of the hotel at 5:30. We —Bonnie, Megan (with a foot injury), Lydia and I—were not alone. The lobby of the hotel was filled with half-marathoners.

It was cold out when we left.

We arrived at to Presque Isle at 5:40, and to the parking area at 6. There was a steady stream of traffic headed in. When we arrived at the designated parking, the lot looked filled. We didn't want to go to the next lot. Who wants to walk more? Lucky for us they opened more spaces in the front of the lot. Yeah us. Briefly, we had a front row spot.

They asked us to arrive an hour early, and we did. But we didn't want to stand around in the cold. So we sat in the car until 6:45. The sun was up and it was considerable warmer.

Traffic must have been really backed up. They didn't start the race till 7:20. Bonnie of course took off with a start, leaving the rest of us in her dust. I managed to catch up to her by the half mile mark. My goal was to stay caught up till mile 9. I did, but it was exhausting.

Megan and Lyd walked together the first four miles. Then they split up. The race went from one end of the island to the other and back. The turn point was about 6.5 miles. I think we had passed 7 when we heard Lyd on the other side of the bushes. She was a mile to a mile and a half behind.

I kept losing and catching up to Bonnie. She had made friends with the walkers in front of us—Dr. Brian, Uncle Bob and the son. Dr. Brian makes Bonnie look slow. But she never lost a beat. Me, I lost many and had to power walk often to keep up.

By mile 9 I couldn't keep up any more. She went ahead and soon was out of site. A little while later I saw Megan talking to her.  Where did she come from?

Soon Bonnie took off and I caught up with Megs, we finished the race together. I can't remember times, but Bonnie was around 3:31 and came in third in her age group.  Megan and I came in around 3:34. When we finished I had Megs call Lydia. She had just crossed 11 miles and wanted to give up. Her hip pain was back. Megan yelled into the phone "YOU ARE NOT GIVING UP. Aunt Gayle will meet you at mile 12."

And I did. We walked the last mile or so together.

After the race we went to Bob Evans for a huge breakfast. Then we went to the movies.

I also earned my 35,000 steps badge on FitBit. I can't possibly see how I'd have a 40K day unless I did the one day hike again.