Pitt half 5-5-13

The 'big city' was good to me. Overall finish time 2:24:33.
I got there in the city at 5am. Ended up finding my corral pretty early and some unholy portajohns that were useful. It was cold and the giant herd of people and I were all shivering. There was a DJ and music in the air very party like atmosphere. He tried to get us to do the macarena but no one could remember how to do it close proximity to me anyway.Not a surprise.

By the time the gun went off and it was our turn to get across the start it had been 20minutes. As I crossed the start line I must have pushed the wrong button on my garmin and it did not start taking time. I tried frantically while I started to run to fix it but then soon realized if I didn't pay attention I would be stampeded and gave up. At this point my garmin was just an expensive useless piece of jewelry that I could not ditch, I tried to move on and forget it. When they say there is a time clock and a mile marker every mile, they mean it but you don't see them. It really is confusing a huge stampede.

By mile 6 my bladder was starting to give out. I had to pee so badly I started seeing words flash around my head like:  bladder rupture, uremia, visibly peed pants, stinky runner, mandypeepants. I saw portapottys, and when I stopped then I noticed the 10 people deep line. SHITS. I had to wait, I couldn't make it any further. I tried to be a good sport but I was busting my balls for time and now I have to wait. I literally untied my skapris while waiting in line with other people so I could be ready. After I did my deeds it was about 10 minutes total. :( Surprise 1 of the day!

Surprise 2 has to do with the course. I am from Pittsburgh, been in and out of the city my whole life, I have traveled those bridges and areas and I never noticed just how freaking hilly it really was. I mean HILLY. Every one of those awesome bridges represent and uphill and a downhill. You never notice in a car! Also the roads I knew were bad hills were monstrosities at this point. I was not pacing myself. I had no working watch. I wasn't timing my fuels. What planet was I even on????

Suprise 3 The fuel stations. Do you know that they squirt GU on to a toungue depressor and pass it to you that way? UM yeah, me niether until it was too late!!! It occured to me as i ran over the trampled toungue blades, thinking why do all these people need vaseline? DUH.

Suprise 4  the fans. WOW. I felt important. The home stretch was ridiculous. Honestly just thousands of people cheering. I was knee deep in other people but I still felt awesome. I even hammed it up to make up yell louder. I recommend a personalized bib, they know your name!!!So much fun! My superfan, HUBS never saw me once, it was just too crowded!

It was so well organized. I was really shocked to see how quickly in and out it was. Very well orchestrated all around. We were home by 12pm. Sadly by the time we had been home a few hours we heard that a young man of 23 passed away on mile 12. It kinda left the air out of the balloon for us, it went from a buzzy feeling to kind of ominous. As we heard it on the news I reached over and squeezed my boys. My thoughts and prayers are with that young man's family.  It is real that life is short, unscheduled, and sometimes really harsh.

Onward.