ENOUGH!

I'm not entirely sure what the f kind of hell mouth opened up around me but I'm totally done with all of the bad luck and negative nonsense that's been happening lately. Here's a brief run-down:

1. Over the past few months I've had some crap going on with my car and some serious issues with the people who were supposed to be fixing it - it seemed like they were making everything worse since within an hour of me picking it up each time it got stuck in reverse or wouldn't get into gear or straight up wouldn't turn on

2. To get to the race I had a buddy pass from a friend who works for Southwest Airlines and I was stoked for a free plane ride... but on thursday when I got to the airport every flight was completely overbooked and there were tons of people waiting from cancelled flights from the previous night. I waited for a few hours to see if anything would work out but was eventually told there was no way I'd be getting on a plane that day. So I went home and bought a rather pricey ticket to leave the next day.

3. I finally got to Cleveland and my grandpa picked me up and took me to my hotel. And what a shock that was... I got it from Priceline and the hotel that was pictured was totally not the same hotel. It was in a terrible neighborhood, had windows missing, smelled funky, and had paper thin walls so that I could hear everyone's conversations. I called Priceline and they were zero help, as was the front desk at the hotel. Sleeping there that one night was awful and for the third night in a row I got less than 5 hours of sleep.

4. Then my grandpa took me to the expo to get my packet, neither of us realizing that it was kind of far away and I could tell he was getting tired and a little frustrated. Though I guess now that one's neither here nor there.

5. I ended up switching hotels but the only thing open wasn't in Cleveland... It was in Independence. A little far from  the startline of the race and that was kind of stressing me out. But I slept pretty well that night and was totally glad for it.

6. Race day. I felt so ready. It was humid and drizzly but everything felt perfect and for the first 15 miles it pretty much was. We started a bit fast so I decided to hang  back a bit and if I felt okay I'd pick it up  later on in the race. Then somewhere after mile 15 I had some pain kind of in my butt at the top of my pelvis near my spine. And then a few blocks later there was a sharp hot pain and I couldn't take another step. A lady from an aid station down the block came to help me and call the medics and she waited with me for what seemed like an hour. When the came she told them she thought I had a broken hip... That scared the crap out of me.

7. They took me to the hospital where I realized  I wasn't going to be able to get a hold of my mom. She was waiting at the finish with my grandpa. Of course she has a cell phone but I don't know the number by heart - it's in my phone which my mom was holding in her purse. The medics said they'd try to contact the people at the race so they could make an announcement or something and try to find her but after waiting for hours in the hospital with no contact from the doctors or nurses and no word as to whether or not they found my mom, I started to panic.

8. Finally my mom and grandpa came and about an hour later I was released (with a grade 2 gluteal tear, luckily no break or fracture) and finally on my way back to the hotel. My mom was scheduled to fly out that evening, but - just because we all needed a little something else to wrong - her flight was cancelled and then her second one was delayed twice and she would miss her connecting flight.

9. After hours on planes (super uncomfortable with a torn ass muscle) we all made it back home. Whew. I needed everything to just calm down for a bit but things weren't quite right... And just to make sure I got my fill of adversity, I opened my big mouth, said something stupid, and ended a relationship that meant the world to me.


Okay done with the whining :) So. That's that. As far as the dnf goes... Wow. I have never dropped out of a race before and I'm terribly embarrassed that I did. I know it's not exactly something that can be helped but that doesn't mean I don't completely wish it hadn't happened. I know I talked a big game and I can imagine that a few are laughing at this fiasco and that's fine... I can't do much about it now. I did receive a lot of support and well wishes for this race and I'm truly grateful for my awesome friends and teammates - thank you all so much! I need a little time to recover and lay low and get my head back on straight. But soon enough I'll be back to running and still in pursuit of a solid sub 2:46. I don't know which marathon I'll go for in the fall but there's quite a bit of time to think about it.

As far as other stuff, well... yeah. I know stuff/life happens and not always the way you want it to. In this case, all completely the opposite of what I wanted. But I'm ready for some good changes and I've decided that I'm absolutely not accepting anything else negative. At all. So there!!

I know this is long and blah so if you read it all, thank you and hopefully the next one will be significantly happier. Ha!

Oh oh oh! And!! Congratulations to my Roost teammate Nicole Chyr who took the win at the Colfax Marathon! I'm so happy for you!

And my very best wishes to Amy - I'm so glad everything is okay. What a weekend, right?? Yikes. But, on we go. Nothing but good stuff from now on!