Notes
The weather was custom ordered, the race numbers were record breaking! The first half was incredible! I felt great, I felt strong, I was fast, my leg injury was staying at bay. I lost Kirsten at about mile 2 or so, as her legs were still a bit tight & sore and she, understandably, didn't want to push too hard & ruin it. I decided since I was going to be benched post race, why not push it & kept going. At 11 miles, I was still at a sub-10 pace and feeling strong. The first few hills, I was still strong and sub-10, but I noticed on the 2nd hill that my lower leg was starting to tighten & the burning pain was turning to shooting pain. My mile 12 or 13, the pain had crawled up from my lower leg to my entire right leg and I had to slow down. Besides, Kirsten & I wanted to run this race together & I was missing her. I figured she couldn't be much behind me, so I slowed down a bit more & kept checking behind me. A few hundred meters from the finish line, I gave up finishing with her & started to push a little harder again. Just after I rounded the last curve before the finish, I heard Derek holler "go Eryn" followed a few seconds later by, "Eryn's just ahead, go get her Kirsten". Inwardly, I struggled between "she beat you by two seconds in that 10mile race a few weeks ago, you aren't seriously going to wait, are you" and "she is your best friend & you two wanted to finish this together, holding hands & skipping!". So good me won out, since I new I was going to PR anyway. I looked over my shoulder, used what breath I still had & hollered, "Come get me, Blondie, come get me!!" Twenty or so feet before the finish line, I held my hand out behind me & told her to get moving & grab on. Just a few feet before the finish, we joined hands & ran (no energy left for skipping) across together, my shoe crossing just a millisecond before hers, placing me ahead (ok, so best friend only goes so far!!). It was incredible!!! I'm so glad she was there and we made it together!!