Awhile ago I saw this thing on Facebook (cuz that's where all the best stuff comes from) about a half marathon at Devil's Lake State Park. Devil's Lake is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. There are these bluffs that you can hike up and look out over all this amazing scenery. One of them over looks the lake and I could just sit there for hours and be totally content not doing anything but enjoying the view. The first time I was here was when I was 17. I was in the Army Reserves and I was staying with one of my sergeants before we left for drill at Fort McCoy she drove to Devil's Lake and we went hiking up the previously mentioned bluff. I fell in love immediately. So when I saw this event, called Dances With Dirt, I was in. I asked my hubby if he would want to take a camping trip since it's a 2 hour drive to get there and he was up for it so I signed up and booked us a camp site a few months ago.
I knew that this half would require some extra training, trail runs are a whole different animal than street runs. So I started going to a local nature center and running there instead of in town. I found that I ran faster and easier than I ever have before. I think I found my niche. I may never go back. Well, ok, I will, but trail running is my favorite right now. I love being in nature, and there are no people looking at you, no passersby to gawk, none of those things that make me uncomfortable. There are occasionally other people on the trails, but they are always friendly.
Anyway, I did more planning for this half marathon than I ever have before. You see, this is the first one I have ever done without my bestie. She is the planner. She plans our training schedule, she plans a lot of the details for travel, she looks at the route maps and aid stations, she takes care of pretty much all the details. She likes it and she has never steered me wrong yet, so I let her do it. We have a system and it works pretty great. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. However, she is currently just shy of 30 weeks pregnant so no Dances With Dirt for her. But, I have learned that changing my lifestyle means getting out of my comfort zone. So I put on my big girl pants (or running capris, I have never run in pants, DOWN WITH PANTS!) and I did all the planning myself. Looking at the elevation maps, I knew that it would be a tough course. But let me tell you, those maps are very deceiving!
Brian and Parker were going with me to the run and were going to wait for me at the finish line. Neither of them have ever seen me finish a run before so I was so excited for this. I told them what I thought my finish time would be based on my last trail half marathon. Yeah, I was off, by quite a bit...oh well, hills happen and there were a lot of them.
At the starting line I wasn't really nervous which is very unusual for me. Usually I am a ball of nerves and feel like I may vomit. But I was calm, I didn't care about how fast I was, I just wanted to do it. It was so odd not standing at the finish line with Ashley, but I knew I would be ok. I got a new phone recently and stupid me, did not transfer my music onto it, so I had no music. No way, not going to work. Lucky for me, Brian had his sd card in our gps and it's loaded with all of his music. So he stuck it in my phone and bam, I had music. Can I just say that my husband and I have very very different tastes in music. But, I am not complaining, it was a music emergency. There is one song that I have started pretty much almost every single one of my runs with. I don't know why, it was the one that played at the start of my first ever run and now it has become my thing. It's like it tells my legs that it's time to get moving. Luckily, Brian has that one so it all worked out ok.
I started off slow because I am a back of the pack runner so there is this mob of people in front of me at the start and I ain't about to weave around them and waste precious energy. A little bit into the trail we got bottlenecked and had to go single file anyway, and were pretty much at a quick walk for a little bit because is was up this steep hill. In fact, the first 2 miles were completely uphill. THE WHOLE WAY! Mile 3 gave a little bit of relief with some flat land. Then miles 4 and 5 were pretty much all uphill again. I told myself to just keep moving, run when you can and walk when you need to, but just keep going. I felt pretty good, I was prepared with running fuel and knew where the water stops were. One issue, there was not a single mile that was marked on the entire run. Not One! Oh yeah, and in the middle of nature and shit, I kept hearing every runner's nightmare, GPS signal lost. So according to my gps of the run, I only did about 8 miles. And I can apparently fly because there are a lot of gaps in the map of my run.
At around mile 7.5 the trail was at the top of the bluff. This is the only time I came to a total stop for the whole run. I didn't care about my time, I had already texted Brian that I was behind what I thought I would be because there was so much more elevation climb than I thought.
This view is just absolutely breathtaking, and not just because I ran 7.5 miles mostly uphill to see it. We didn't climb the bluff with the beautiful lake view, but this was totally worth it too. I haven't seen this view before and it was incredible. I texted Brian a picture, I doubt I will ever get him up there, like the only thing he is afraid of is heights. Well, not heights, but unsecure heights, you know, like a ledge with no guard rails and loose rocks and the such.
Close to the end there was a gentleman that passed me, I'd say late 40's to mid 50's, I'm bad with that stuff. Anyway, he looked at his watch and said "only 2.5 miles left, just think of how good it will feel when you finish." He had a black race bib which meant he was running the 50 mile run. 50 miles, BADASS!!! I was like, I haven't done nearly as much as you have. and he goes " it doesn't matter, 13.1 miles is still 13.1 miles". That moment right there reminded me of just how awesome the running community is. This guy had run 47 miles and still took the time to encourage me, the girl only doing 13 miles. Like how great is that?
So I finished, slower than I had thought, but I did it, and when I came out of the woods I could see Brian and Parker waiting for me. I almost cried, it was so great to see them there waiting for me. I can't even tell them how much it meant to me to have them there. I told Parker that it made me really happy because I know that it was a boring wait for them there. and he told me "of course Mom, I would do anything to see you finish". That boy, he is all sorts of awesome! Love him and Brian to pieces!
Overall, the weekend was fantastic, the run was great and totally worth it, and I plan on doing it again next year! All the hills and pain and all of it, totally worth it!
