Museum of Aviation recap

WOW I am so tired right now but I want to post this before I forget about anything. I just got through with lunch and I am getting sleepy listening to this rain.

Today I got up like I would for any other race. Woke up 1 hour before wanting to leave, made myself a peanut butter and banana sandwich with some Poweraid and out the door. We left and I was hoping the rain would hold off today. It did not. It started to rain after we got to the museum. I got us some chairs to sit in and wait for the race to start. I had about 1 hour to wait cause we got there early. I had friends calling us and telling us that they were stuck in traffic for about 1/2 mile in 3 different directions. I was glad we got there early.

When I got there I saw that Mercedes was doing a give away of a $100 gift certificate to Run Fit Sports. I had to put my name in the box. Then I looked up and it was my old friend Rob that I use to work with at Oshman's Sporting Goods at the Macon Mall. I had not seen him in about 20 years. It was great to meet up with an old friend and get caught up on the old days.


I met up with FM to get my special gel he made for me. It is so good and smells like baby aspirin. YUMMY!!!!! Now I waited to meet up with Steve to get some sport beans. I finally saw him when we were getting in line for the race. Now I am ready to run. Gel, beans and water. BOOM, time to run.

Off and running telling Steve that I was running a 2:15/1 ratio today cause that is how I roll. Galloway style. It rocks. I was keeping an overall pace of 11:20 which was the pace I wanted to keep to try and PR today. Steve was telling me that we were running at a pace of 9 min/mile and then walking. I told him yep.

As we were running past mile 2 I heard someone behind me ask me if I was in the medical field. I told her yes and she said that she was also. I was trying my best to try and figure out who she was and vise-versa. She then told me that she use to be a nurse in Griffin and I told her I worked there about 12 years ago. She said what is your last name and I said Cook. Then it hit me that we use to work together in Griffin. Amy was running with her niece that was running her first half-marathon today. She said that she had not run past 4 miles before today. Steve decided to stay back with them and I took off on my own pace.

I was keeping the pace and feeling great. I was warming up so I decided when I saw Tommy around mile 8, I would toss him my jacket. I told him that I was feeling great and I was on track for a PR. We chatted for a couple of seconds and then I was off. Running past mile markers 9-12 and I was still feeling great. I then saw the 1/2 point turn around point and I looked at my watch and I noticed that I was about 3 minutes ahead of my PR time and pace. I felt great and started thinking how good it was be to finish in a sub 5.

I was going great UNTIL mile 16 when my legs started to cramp, feet got sore and I was hungry. I was made cause I was thinking that I was not going to make the time that I was on. I had to stop and walk and try and get the cramps to stop. Then it was off to running again. Now I am getting very cold from the rain and I was praying that Tommy would still be in his spot. I turned the corner, and there he was. Thank you Lord. I stopped under his tent, got my jacket and talked for a while. I told him that I was tired, cold and hungry. I now that I am not going to get any faster nor more proficient until I loose the weight. This has been a HUGE struggle for me and it is very disappointing. I feel like I am not a winner cause of this spare tire. I have tried to diet, run and watch what I eat but nothing is working for me. Well, enough of the pity party.

I decided around mile 20 that if I needed to walk in the rest of the race that I was ok with this idea. And that is what I started to do. In the process I ran into a lady that was running her 254 marathon. We shuffled and walked together and traded stories through out the end of the race. We made the last turn and came up to the where the finish line was at last year and guess what.........

it was not there. They moved it to the top of a big hill. WHY????? I don't know but I was just glad to finish and see my baby taking pictures of me. I got my medal with a time of 5:41 which through all the problems I had today, it was 1 minute faster than last year. I had to find something good to say about my time.


It was great to see so many Marathon Maniacs our there today. I have made some new friends. Another hello to Amy and Rob that I had not seen in about 15-20 years. Thank you to FM for the Gel and Steve for the sports beans. Thank you to Phil and Jamie for telling me that they thought I had slimmed up and lost weight. A shout out to the Galloway group including Kenny and Shannyn doing their first half-marathon today. Thank you to Deb who got me on the base for a training run, I hope you had a great race today. And to all the others that I saw today that said hello or helped me to finish, a big thank you.