On April 16th, we headed over to ASU stadium bright and early for Pat's Run. That is, if you can call 4:50 am bright and early...My sister Lexi and her roommate Amanda drove down from Provo the day before for the event. Keith and I had started training about six weeks before the race, but unfortunately, Keith was injured and unable to run the race, even though we had signed him up. (He would have struggled to even walk it at that point.) We also signed up Sareny and Isaac for the .42 mile kids race, which they were excited about. Pat's run is 4.2 miles, starts in the parking lot for the stadium, and ends on the 42 yard line where you are greeted by current ASU football players. I felt kind of nervous as we were waiting for the race to begin!
There were a lot of people here--over 20,000 people completed the race.
We are in that crowd somewhere, waiting for our heat to go. And when I say waiting, I do mean waiting. We didn't get to start the race until 40 minutes after the first runners...lots of people had already finished the race when we were starting! To start the runners off, a trumpet soloist played the national anthem, and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard. I couldn't help thinking about what an amazing guy Pat Tillman was, and how that was what he gave his life for. By the end of the song I had tears streaming down my cheeks.
You can see a long row of porta-potties in the above picture. We were so glad we used them early, and before we crossed the street to the runners side. We had no waiting on the spectator side, but on the runners side the lines were huge and slow, and even when we were finally started to move towards the start line, there were still lots of people waiting for them.
The race itself was so awesome and inpiring, I can't even begin to describe how exhilirating it is to be a part of something like this. I had suffered setbacks in my training (shin splints, surgery) so I wasn't able to run the entire race, so I ran 5 minutes, walked 1 minute, and repeated. I had to modify it a couple of times, but this strategy actually worked pretty well. I made it to the finish line under my goal time, and I was shocked when I realized I had enough left to sprint for the finish. Here we are after the race.
The kids with Lexi.
While it was disapointing for Keith not to be able to run, it was convenient that he could watch the kids while we ran. He took them over to the bounce houses and the other kids things they had set up. They got free cotton candy, treats, jamba juices, and tattooes. Here is Isaac showing his Tillman pride.
And Sareny and Lexi being silly.
Then the kids ran their race. I was so proud of them--they did great! I was especially surprised to see Isaac running so fast, dodging around people and passing them right and left. He was so quick I didn't get his picture as he ran in, but here is Sareny with Lexi (you can barely make our her head,) who ran the race with her. (Amanda ran with Isaac.)
Afterwards, the ASU football players stuck around for pictures and signing kids shirts. I thought that was really nice of them.
We went home and relaxed for most of the day, but we couldn't stop talking about the race and how awesome it was. How glad I am that Holli and Johnny first got us interested in this race years ago, and that Lexi pushed me to do it this year! We are already making our plans for next year. You should join us!!
