Back in March my sister in law, Crystal, and her kids were here for spring break and she said she wanted this to be the year she did Soaring Wings. She's heard me talk about it every year since my first and the time had come for her to make it happen. I was so happy, of course, but when she texted and said she had signed up my youngest brother, Brandon, as well, I was even more so.
The joke comes in when I registered Scott and myself the next day and posted on Facebook that I thought my other brother, Joshua, and sister in law, Krista, should also run with us. It wasn't a joke because I thought they weren't able, but just because I truly didn't expect them to want to. A week or two later in a sibling group text a screenshot for two more registrations showed up. To say I was ecstatic was a vast understatement.
Building or maintaining a solid base was the goal through the summer and official training began mid August. With a new job keeping me busy and a girl's weekend mid way, I was having to be very flexible with my training. Something that takes a lot of effort for me. I like to stick to the plan 100%. Or at least 85-90%. There wasn't a week that went by that I didn't move a run or cut out miles. Throw in a very last minute work trip the week before the race, and I started to wonder if I'd be able to be the encourager I hoped to be for my siblings.
I had told Crystal long ago that I would run with her for her first half marathon, whenever that happened to be. We stuck with that plan, even when Crystal's training had to take a back seat to a back injury flare up. It didn't matter to me what our finishing time would be. Friday night before the race we talked about a plan for the race and Crystal said she would like to run for at least three miles, but really see how far she could go before taking a walk break, and after that we would do some form of intervals.
A couple months before the race, Scott said he would do the race with Krista. She had been training with 3 minute runs/1 minute walks so that was her plan for the race as well. As far as I know Joshua and Brandon didn't have a specific plan, other than to move in whatever way necessary to finish. I also don't know if they had talked about staying together the whole time, or maybe talked about separating at some point.
My brothers and their families drove into town; going straight to the race expo in Conway. So as soon as the kids were out of school, Scott got off work early and we met them there. My nieces and nephews were doing the kid's races, but the mile race was cancelled because of rain, and the shorter races were moved inside. I was hoping to make it for the races but because of the rain it took a little longer to get to Conway than it should have. I was too excited about this being my sibling's first half marathon and made a silly request for them to wait to get their packets until we arrived. I love that they humored me and waited. It was packed at the expo and I know it really would have been easier with the kids if they had all gotten their packets while they waited for us.
After getting our packets we went to dinner and then sent the kiddos home with my parents. We ran a couple errands and enjoyed some sibling time together before trying to get some good sleep. I don't know that any of us slept much, but morning came anyway. :)
The timing of everything was going well, even though only one of three alarms went off. We still met in the lobby and got to the McGee Center in good time. Until we went to try and trade Crystal's shirt and they said the race was about to start. I thought we still had 15 minutes. Ummm, Rookie Move, Heather! I was wondering why I kept seeing 7:10 for start time. I was thinking 7:10 is when the National Anthem would be sung and the prayer said, and following that, the waves would begin. I read wrong. :-/ So the one that has start line anxiety, and desperately prefers to be TO the start line 20 minutes early... had everyone running late.
PANIC!
Okay, not really. But I didn't like it. Crystal, Brandon, Joshua, and I found a place in a corral where we felt reasonably comfortable, but Scott and Krista didn't show up. After a couple minutes Joshua went up to find them. I guess they had stopped because someone was singing the National Anthem. So, we did end up making it to the start line in time, but no one except the people in the closer up corrals could hear. I was so disappointed. I have a really hard time picking just one favorite part of any race. But the National Anthem and the prayer before the race are definitely up there on my favorites list! So Scott and Krista joined us, and it was barely 2 minutes later that our corral started moving. We had time for my traditional start line selfie and then we were moving! I was so excited and caught up in the moment I forgot to say anything to Scott about seeing him at the end. That's my only regret at this race. I'm pretty sure he didn't think anything of it. I love that we all started this race together.
Caught up in the excitement, Crystal and I left my brothers, other sister, and Scott and went on to do our thing. The other four were almost always on my mind. Joshua and I had shared our locations in a group text so that our dad could track us for spectating, so I would occasionally see where Joshua was, and assume Brandon was still with him. But I really had no idea where Scott and Krista were unless Scott texted. From here on, until nearly the end, it's really all about just Crystal and me. I wish I had asked my siblings to write an account of their side to throw in here.
Crystal ran a very smart race. I was so impressed with her. From the start, if she felt our pace pick up, she would say we needed to pull back so that we could run longer before walking. My parents and the 6 grandkids, ranging from 3 to 13 years old, showed up at what has become the regular first stop right about mile 3. The kids looked a little sleepy (they did have to get up early on a weekend after all. ;) ) and the younger ones were maybe a little confused as to why Nana and PopPop were yelling and ringing loud bells. It was so fun seeing not only my daughter, but also my nieces and nephews on the course! Normally I have a pretty good idea where my parents will show up next, but because we were running in 3 groups, Dad said that they may have to split up. So it was kind of a fun distraction for me to think about possible places for them to show up.
At 3 1/2 miles we were tackling the first of the longer hills on the course. Earlier in the race I had asked Crystal if she wanted me to give her a heads up when the bigger hills were coming. She said she thought that would be a good idea. Later on when I asked again she went back and forth, but again decided it would mentally help if she knew what was coming. This first of the hardest hills is nearly half a mile long and begins with a gentle incline but quickly changes to very steep. I dread it every year! It's mentally challenging on top of tiring on the legs and praying your heart doesn't leave your chest before you get to the top. I fully expected Crystal to tell me she was ready to walk when we got to this point. That didn't happen though. Instead, with some goal points we set along the way, she pep talked her way up the hill. Seriously, I was way impressed. This was my 9th year doing Soaring Wings and I'm pretty sure it's only been in the last 2 or 3 years that I have run this whole hill. And when I do it, it usually involves some grumbling or growling. Not a pep talk. Less than 10 miles to go and Crystal was holding strong.
We spent the next few miles with a mix of talking about parts of the course coming up, altering goals, and focusing on running a smart race. Crystal's hope had been to make it minimum 3 miles without walking. After making it up that hill she decided to go for 4, then 5, then 6. And then 7. 7 miles of running after not a whole lot of training in the weeks leading up to the race because of her injury. Before her injury flared up, she had gotten in 8 miles about a month before the race. At the aid station around mile 7 we walked through the water stop and then took a second for Crystal to stretch out and for me to get a boulder out of my shoe. A boulder that was actually a barely there piece of sand, but extremely bothersome nonetheless.
At this point we were excited to be over half way done with the race, but also knew that the "worst" was coming. I've said it before, the back half of Soaring Wings is the worst. Many more hills, short and long. A long stretch of course with no turns. And more of the mental game knowing that the mile 12 hill still loomed ahead. But still, we stayed positive. Even when Crystal started to hurt. We talked about what kind of pain she was feeling. Was it an injury type pain or the pain that comes with distance running. She insisted it was the distance. We didn't have specific intervals for the second half of the race, but picked points to run or walk between. On the hills we would go back and forth counting down cones, light poles, or mailboxes and encouraging Crystal to keep running to those points. Once in a while she would have a little cry, but quickly recover and make it to the next point.
We had seen my parents and the kids a little before mile 5, and then the next time was around mile 9. I would occasionally check on Joshua's location, and our best guess was that he was never more than half a mile behind us. We were also assuming he and Brandon were still together. There was no way to know for sure, and also no way at all to know where Scott and Krista were, but based on how my parents didn't split up like we thought they would, I liked to guess Scott and Krista were half a mile or so behind Joshua and Brandon. Meaning, each group was only 5-10 minutes apart from each other. It was strictly a guess though.
Somewhere around mile 10 we were reassessing our finish time goal. I had been keeping up with our pace and for a while, even with the walking we had kept our average under 11 minutes. At the beginning Crystal was saying she was expecting a 12-13 minute pace and hoped to finish in under 3 hours. After seeing our pace stay under 11 this far in, our new goal became finishing in under 2:30. We knew our pace would likely break 11 minutes in the last mile or two, and that was ok. I was still confident we could make the sub 2:30 goal.
I am pretty sure one of the highlights, or probably the number one highlight, for Crystal was at mile 11 when we saw our family again. Crystal's 7 year old son shouted, "You're doing great momma. I love you!" as we ran by. Of course that definitely got the tears going. At this point she's gone 3 miles past her longest distance ever. She's hurting so badly. And her son has pulled on her heart strings by telling the world that he sees how awesome she is doing. That one took a bit of time to recover from. :)
By the time we were nearing the mile 12 hill, we had run a long stretch. Close to a mile I think. It was the longest run we had since throwing in the walks. As we got closer we decided we would run to the base of the hill and then walk up until we decided to run, or at the top. Whichever happened first. Well, we got to talking to a couple girls and it was a fun distraction. I knew we were heading up the hill, but Crystal did not. She and one of the other girls realized at the same time that we were already about 1/4 of the way up. So we picked a point to get to before walking. We were both feeling the distance. It's a special kind of pain. The kind that's hard to ignore, and when you're not expecting it, it's hard to remember you have earned it. Passing the mile 12 flag was crazy exciting for me. Just one more mile!!! I tried to pump Crystal up with the happy news, but there's a chance she wasn't in the right mindset in that moment.
For the next mile I tried to keep positive and let Crystal know what was coming up. Down the hill- Okay, a couple small inclines that can't really be called hills after what we've done over the last 12 miles- See that intersection right there? That's where we made our first turn at the beginning of the race- Almost there- Around the curve you'll see our final turn into the finisher's chute- Last turn- GO!!
As always, the special kids that live on the Soaring Wings Ranch were there to hand out our medals. Crystal and I got ours and some water and then worked our way through the spectators to find our family. We recouped for a couple minutes and I checked on the location of Joshua. My best guess was they were a little past 12 miles. We decided to walk back up the course, about 1/3 of a mile or so, to cheer them on when they were so close to the end. While we were waiting, Scott texted to say they had just gotten to 12 miles. Crystal started walking back towards the finish line while I started jogging towards everyone else. I saw my brothers soon after Crystal and I separated and yelled and cheered them on until they were too far to hear. I texted Scott to see if he and Krista minded if I met up with them to run the rest with Krista, and he said, "Come on!". So I went one way while my brothers went the other. I cheered them on in my head and pictured them crossing the finish line together. The thought made me smile so big.
I met up with Scott and Krista when they had maybe 3/4 of a mile to go. Krista was all smiles. She joked about hearing Scott's life story and now it was my turn to distract her. So I asked about how things had been going, if they had kept the 3 minute run/1 minute walk intervals, wondering about other runners they had run with, anything to bring a distraction. As we got to the last curve, I told Krista how close she was, pointing and telling her that once we rounded the curve she would see the finishing area. She made kind of a gasping sound and I was so worried that what I said about how close we were made her feel like we actually weren't close enough to the finish. Then with a choke in her voice she said, "That's it? That's the finish??" Scott and I cheerfully said YES and then Krista said, "It's SO CLOSE!!" and started sobbing. I reached over to hug her and she continued to cry as we walked holding each other with barely a quarter mile left.
When she was ready, Krista stood up straight ready to take on the final stretch.
As we got closer to our last turn I was looking for Crystal, Brandon, and Joshua. The night before the race I had told everyone about this sappy vision in my head of how I saw the end of the race. It wasn't something I expected, but I just saw us all crossing the finish line together, no matter when each individual finished. I was hoping that I'd see the other three at the start of the final chute, but as we got to the corner I didn't see them. I knew it would be hard to arrange that, especially without having a way to track where we were. So I wasn't disappointed when I didn't see anyone...
We started the last running interval just before making the last turn and Krista told us she wanted to sprint to the finish. She was not kidding. We made that turn and she took off!! I wasn't actually sure if I could keep up. And then, from the side walking past the roped off final chute, I saw Joshua. And then I saw Brandon. And then Crystal going under the rope (pretty sure finishing off a hamburger as she did so LOL). It happened. We were all six going to finish together. I was so happy. SO. Happy.
Running down the finisher's chute hearing people cheering, knowing that the MC was calling out the names of finishers, and confident that my parents and all the kids were right across the finish line waiting to see all of us finish was the most exhilarating feeling. I feel like I could not hide my pride. I was doing one of my most favorite things in the world. And all my siblings were there with me. Words cannot describe this feeling.
Brandon, Crystal, Joshua, Krista... look what you have done. Look what WE have done.
I don't remember our finishing stats, and I'm not going to look them up. Because it doesn't matter right now. If my siblings decide to do another half marathon, and if they do it for time, maybe the stats will matter then. But right now, to me, it does not matter. We just ran a half marathon together.
We started together. We finished together. Siblings Half Marathon (#1) is in the books! <3
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