Mission Accomplished!

That's right. I successfully completed the Spurs 5k on Saturday! Hurray! Here's the recap.

We had to pick up our packets between 7:30 and 8:30 am, but the race didn't sart until 9:30. Thinking there would be tons of people there, Kerrie, Claire and I set out for the AT&T Center at 7 am, and arrived at 7:30. We pretty much got the best parking spot available, and by 7:35 we were all checked in and had our packets and t-shirts. So we ended up sitting in the car for an hour and a half, then finally at 9 am we walked towards the start line and walked around a bit for warm-up.

Sean Elliot was MC-ing the event, and Mayor Castro was there too. They had you gather around a marker that stated your average mile time, so the faster runners were in front, as well as the handicapped. The Star Spangled Banner was played by the color guard, and then we were off.

I felt pretty good at first as my legs got warmed up. Then I started to think, "Why am I doing this?!" But I kept going. Then I hit an unforgiving hill, but I powered through and made it to the top (it really wasn't a big hill, but still, it hurt).

I kept an eye out for Spurs players along the route, but so far it was just a lot of other people I didn't know, high-fiving us and cheering us on. At mile one, I spotted my first Spur. He looked familiar, but I didn't know his name. That didn't stop me from grabbing the cup of Gatorade he offered (which I had hoped was water, not being a big Gatorade fan). I took a gulp, tossed it and kept on moving.

The whole route wound through the parking lot of the AT&T Center. When I realized that during mile 2, I thought, "This lot is huge!" I kept looking at my watch, since I knew somewhat how long it would take me. I knew I'd only been at it 15 minutes, and I definitely had about 18-20 more to go. More pain, but I pushed through.

The 2 mile marker wasn't right where I was expecting it, but I rounded a corner, and there it was. The Spurs coach was there, along with Tim Duncan. Coach was high-fiving, Tim was handing out drinks. There was also a cameraman right there to capture each of us running by. I had to wipe the look of pain off my face and look happy instead as I ran by. Tim handed me Gatorade (I never seemed to get water), which I immediately spilled all over myself because, as it turns out, it's hard to drink from a cup and run at the same time. But I was afraid if I walked I wouldn't start again.

I knew I could make the last 1.1 miles. There was a steep downhill part, which sounds like it might be refreshing but actually hurt more than going uphill. I hated it. Then it leveled out and I could see the finish line way ahead. I turned up my music and picked up the pace.

As I was closing in on the finish, I pushed as hard as I could and crossed the line. The Coyote and Sean gave me a high five and a pat on the back. Then a military guy cut the timing chip off my shoe, and I headed out of the finish area because I needed to walk it off.

My finish time was 34:00, which was excellent since my goal was 36:00. It was a hard run, but I'm so happy that I did it and ran the whole thing. My next goal is the Turkey Trot 4-Miler on Thanksgiving. That gives me six weeks. Hurray for accomplishing goals! It's a good feeling.