An official Leading Lady......................



And I have a fabulous purple finishers medal to prove it! But every great story should start at the beginning, so...



I flew into Denver on Friday morning. Not only was I arriving for a race, but was about to meet my online running buddy, Random, for the first time. People in our worlds were worried about what we would do if we didn't hit it off, but neither of us were concerned. I had talked to Random a few times, and I told her I was going to make a sign so she would know who I was, but I wasn't going to tell her what it was going to say. The night before I flew out I talked to her on the phone and she said she had tried to find us scarfs like Thelma and Louise. She didn't know it yet, but the sign I had made said, "Move over Thelma and Louise...Random and Patty have arrived!" Like minds and all that... Our entire time together was like that, and right from the beginning it was as if we had been friends for years. As we unpacked and hung out we found that we used the same brands of certain things, and that we could finish each others sentences without missing a beat. I told her if she were twenty years older I would totally believe we were twins that had been separated at birth! Fantastic thing number one...

Saturday morning we got up and headed to the expo to pick up our packets and meet some other leading ladies. I had had something brewing in the back of my mind, but needed to check it out before I said anything. In March of 2006, when my oldest and I had done the MORE half-marathon, we were standing in line at the Tavern on the Green for the pasta dinner chatting, and I was telling her I was too old to even think of doing a full marathon, and this lady leans over and says to me, "Of course you can do a full. I have done ____(I forget the exact number, but it was at least in the thirties at that time), and I didn't run my first until I was fifty years old!" She then went on to tell me that she does an all woman's run in South Dakota and to come out and run it sometime. As it got closer to race day this conversation came back to me and I wondered if this race could be her race. When I saw her I realized it was indeed so I went up to her and said, "You might not remember me, but we met in line," and she interrupted and said, "Waiting for the porta-potty?" Which is a perfect example of how the entire weekend was; women bonding, laughing at themselves, and holding one another up in love and support. Elaine loved hearing my story of how what she had said to me played a roll in giving me the courage to go for the full distance, and repeated the well known phrase, "Always keep your stomach tucked in as you never know who's watching," which you might know as, "You never know when you are going to say or do something that will touch and make a huge difference in another person's life." She also loved the story of Random and I meeting for the first time to do the race, and was telling all the other ladies about it, making me feel like the celebrity. A pic of me and Elaine. Fantastic thing number two...

Saturday evening Random and I sat down at a table with three other women to find that they too had all met online through a running site and meet and do races together. When we were introducing ourselves I discovered that one of the women lives about an hour from me. Cue the song, "It's a Small World." She ask me if I was doing the Crim (this coming Saturday), a ten mile road race, and I said, 'Yes I am." She is working packet pick up for the race so I am sending (my) Mister to pick up our packets today and meet my new found running friend. Fantastic thing number three, and yes I AM getting to the actual race...

After visiting the expo I suggested that we drive the race route so we would be familiar with it when we did the actual race. Random was game so we checked out the map and headed out. Towards the end of the 13.1 distance Random was wishing we had not driven the route as the race that was suppose to be all downhill seemed to have the last two miles going up hill. We also had some trouble finding the park that the race was to end in, but we figured in the morning we would just be able to follow the other cars heading to the race. The plan was to leave the car at the finish line and catch the bus to the start so we would have the car when we wanted to head back to the hotel.

Race morning we got up about three AM and headed to the finish line. In the dark we could see the water stops set up, but I couldn't quite figure out why they were on the wrong side of the road, as were the mile markers. Remember that last two miles uphill? When we got to that area the water stops suddenly stopped. And why was it that we didn't see any other cars on the road? Mmmm... We continued to drive up and down the route, and when it was past the time we could have caught the bus to the start line we determined we should just go to the start line for the race (fortunately we had found that), and worry about how to get back to the car after the race. Have you guessed it yet? We had totally turned the race course upside down and where the water stops ended was part of the full marathon course that started up the road a bit. Fortunately, we finally found one of those cars we were counting on and got straightened out and headed to the start of the race. Made perfect sense NOW, why the water stops and mile markers were on that side of the road! Let me just interject here that for never having met one another Random and I worked through this little goof with lots of humor and no panic, which I think says a lot about how we were getting along. We made it to the start line not only in plenty of time, but before the bus and were able to use the porta-potties before the lines formed. Bonus! And yes, I know I am a brat, but I have to do some work now and you are going to have to come back tomorrow for race details. Trust me, it will be worth your time. So you don't get made I will leave you with a picture I snapped along the course.