13.1 Miles (well, a few more...)

This is continuation of the Race Weekend post.

40,000 people racing is outrageous. I realized this when I was at the starting line with all of them. Throughout the 19 miles of my half marathon I never stopped being amazed by the number of participants.

For those of you that are thinking, "wait a minute... since when are half marathons 19 miles?" Well, let me tell you.

Dressed and ready for the race!

Starting around 2 pm the Team Challenge participants began lining up for the shuttle to the start line. The strip was closed and traffic was a little crazy, so the three-mile trip to the starting area took nearly 45 minutes. While I was on the bus with Team Wisconsin Heather (of Team DC) sent me a photo of her with Sean.

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Look familiar?

Let me also add a little fun fact. Sean came to the event as the token celebrity for the CCFA Team Challenge half marathon. He forgot his running shoes and had to buy a pair Sunday morning. The Bachelor doesn't pick its contestants based on intelligence? Weird.

When I arrived at the start line I was nervous, jittery, excited and looking for Heather. And a bathroom. In my search for Heather I found the tent of wedding runners. There were at least a hundred couples that were running the half marathon to renew their vows or get married. They had ridiculous outfits and ran through officiants stationed along the course. Oh, Las Vegas, you are not my favorite place in the world for anything other than people watching.

I found myself an "in honor of" bib, filled it out, pinned it on, and headed for my corral. While I was waiting I received a text message from my mom saying that she and Ann had found a perfect viewing spot.

With 40,000 racers and a staggered start I didn't cross the start line until 45 minutes after the gun.

We ran about less than a mile before turning around and heading back up the strip, passing the start line. I frantically looked for Heather, but I couldn't find her. As I scanned the crowd and saw all of the runners in the orange tank tops I was completely overcome with emotion.

I couldn't believe that all of my training had led up to this moment. I couldn't believe that I had raised as much money as I had. I couldn't believe that six months had already passed from the time I first agreed to the race. I couldn't believe I wasn't running with Heather.

I kept on racing.

I was right on pace and proud of myself. The wind was brutal, but I felt great.

At around mile seven I started thinking about Heather and how badly I wanted to cross the finish line with her.

At around mile eight I started to think about how annoying the wind was and how much my knees were starting to bother me.

At mile nine I awkwardly retrieved my telephone from my SpiBelt and tried to call Heather. Her telephone was off. How would I find her?

At mile ten I saw Team Wisconsin people cheering us on. I told Becky, one of the WI coordinators, that I was going to turn around to find Heather in a little while, and if she saw Heather, to please tell her.

At this point in the race, the course was taking us back down the strip. There were thousands of people running in the opposite direction on the other side of the street. I ran down the course looking for Heather. I decided that if I didn't see her by the time I hit the 12-mile mark, I would just turn around, start walking back, and wait for her to catch up to me.

But at about 11.7 miles I saw her! I yelled her name and jumped across the median to hug her. I was ecstatic. I started walking with her and her friend.

"What are you doing?"
"I'm walking with you."
"What?"
"I want to finish the race with you, so I'm going to walk with you."
"Meaghan, how far were you? We have over seven miles left."
"That's fine. I don't care about my time, I just want to finish with you."

So the three of us walked.

I had a few moments when I thought I was going to die, or at the very least pass out, but we made it.

My coach found us at the 12- mile mark and was thrilled to see me.

"What happened to you? My wife was at home tracking you, she told me you were doing well, and then your chip wasn't registering any more times. I couldn't find you!"
"Yeah, I decided to find Heather."
"I thought that might happen."

As Heather and I crossed the finish line I wanted to cry, fall down, throw up, and go to sleep. I didn't want to have my photo taken, but at the same time all I wanted was a photo of us.

We met our moms in the finishers' tent and had plenty of photos taken.

I announced my half-marathon retirement and we discussed our plans for the evening.

Heather and I went out, danced, gambled and drank a few well-deserved beers.

Heather won.

All in all, we had a fantastic weekend and went home with very sore bodies.

Two weeks later I heard from the group I volunteer with, the Jaycees. The president received the donation we were waiting for from working at BeerFest, and she had the check made out to CCFA. She told me the amount and I started shaking.

I called Heather.
I called my parents.
I called Matt.

I was speechless and amazed. I picked up the check the next day to submit to CCFA. I opened the envelope and was in complete shock all over again.

$4200 for CCFA

Thanks to everyone for the support. This was an absolutely amazing experience.

A fun fact about the donation: My parents met Heather's parents when they were in the Jaycees together in Annapolis. They became best friends and Heather and I were friends before we had any choice in the matter. Life is funny like that.

Bachelor Number 4: Part Two

Continued from this post.

But for those of you that don't feel like catching up on past posts, let me recap:

1. I am catching up on forgotten posts.
2. Boy named Rob messages me.
3. Boy named Rob is not my boyfriend.
4. Boy takes me out to dinner and drinks.
5. Boy can make good conversation.
6. Boy asks me out again.
7. I accept said invite, but hesitate due to lack of chemistry.
8. I cross my fingers for sparks.

Rob was taking me out to dinner followed by dancing. He was going to pick me up in twenty minutes, and I was still debating what to wear. The jeans I was wearing made my butt look great, but maybe I should wear a dress instead. I put on a dress. I took off the dress. I put on my jeans again. Yes.

With my hair done, my awesome jeans, new necklace and rockin' patent leather heels, I was ready to go.

I met Rob downstairs and my heart sunk. He gave me an awkward one-armed hug and I cringed.

Come on, Meaghan! There is still potential here, give the poor guy a chance.

I stood on the sidewalk next to Rob looking for his car.

"Since we are so close, I thought we could walk to dinner."

I responded by saying, "sure. Sounds great!" When deep down I was thinking, are you kidding me?! You told me you were picking me up! Do you see my heels? It is at least half a mile to the restaurant. Don't get me wrong, I love a good walk, but again, did you see my heels?

And so we walked.

Well, he walked while I scurried, ran, jogged, speed walked and generally struggled to keep up with him and his short legs which managed to take extremely long strides.

We arrived at Sardine and were brought to our table. I had received tips from a coworker about what to get and had been salivating all day in anticipation, so I immediately ordered a drink and an appetizer. Rob ordered his own appetizer and drink and our table was instantly filled with food, drinks, conversation, and confirmation that I wasn't attracted to the man sitting across from me.

We shared a bottle of wine and ate an outrageous amount of delicious food while I hoped that the date would end immediately after dinner. I was not so fortunate.

Rob suggested we head up to the square to go dancing. And somehow, I couldn't say no. I don't know if it was the wine or my inability to simply tell Rob I wasn't interested, but next thing I knew, we were walking.

Rob walked the half mile uphill without an issue while I struggled to keep up. The road was uneven, the sidewalks were littered with cracks, and my incredibly high and brand new heels could not be classified as appropriate walking shoes. At one point Rob turned to me and asked if I wanted him to slow down.

I didn't even hide my frustration when I snapped, "Uhhh, yeah. That would be nice."

We finally made it to a great bar on the square and I made a beeline for the bartender. I ordered some fancy drink and didn't even offer to pay when we got the check. After the trek up the hill, I was not pleased with Rob and his lack of manners in the walking department. He didn't offer me an arm during the entire walk and ran across one of the streets before I was even with him, leaving me stranded on the other side. I decided that he could pay for my drink... all twelve dollars of it.

While we stood by a high table and sipped on our drinks the music switched from cocktail hour tunes to dancing jams. In a normal situation I would have loved to dance, but Rob beat me to it. The second he began dancing I knew how very over we were. I looked around the bar hoping to find chairs for us where I could keep him from doing whatever it was he was doing with his hips. When I couldn't find any I took another sip of my drink and excused myself to the bathroom.

I went to the bathroom, washed and lotioned my hands, primped, reapplied my lipstick, fixed my makeup, checked my email, considered leaving the bar on my own, decided against it, checked my OkCupid app, found a message from Bachelor Number 5, grinned from ear to ear, responded, checked my makeup again, and went back to my date.

It didn't take me very long for me to finish my drink. Rob asked if I wanted another. I told him that I needed to go home. I had a half-marathon training run in the morning and I just wanted to go home. I offered to go home on my own, but he told me that he would walk with me. I rolled my eyes at his misuse of the word 'walk' and started for the door.

When we got outside Rob offered me his arm. I gratefully took it thinking that I could slow him down while simultaneously using him for support as I navigated the sidewalks and streets downhill.

With Rob on my left we walked on the sidewalk heading back to my apartment. As people walked towards us in the opposite direction Rob moved to the right to give them room. What Rob failed to notice was that he was pushing me off the sidewalk. On a Saturday night, the sidewalks on the square are thoroughfares, and this night was no exception. With each approaching person I was sent dodging mailboxes, and traversing the grate around the planted trees, getting my heel caught only twice.

When I saw the group of four women coming towards us, I knew I was in trouble.

As Rob sidestepped to the right I held onto his arm and kept walking. But Rob moved over further.

Before I knew what had happened my heel was off the edge of the sidewalk and I was rolling in the gutter of the street with one shoe off and one shoe on. (Diddle, diddle dumpling, my son John)

Rob stood above me on the sidewalk and before asking if I was okay or if he could help he said, "what happened?"

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

He offered me a hand, but I knew what help that had been, so I refused the help and got up on my own while the smoke billowed out of my ears. I stood up only to have to wait for the walk signal to change, giving me enough time to see the three corner bars and all of the smokers standing outside watching me.

One of the smokers called out, "nice job, dude! You're not getting any tonight!"

I was too angry to chuckle.

I ran across the street and down the hill, leaving Rob in my dust.

He caught up to me and walked next to me quietly the rest of the way home.

"That was unbelievably embarrassing."
"You shouldn't be embarrassed."
"Well, I am. And you should be too."

When we made it back to my building I thanked Rob for dinner and said goodnight.

And then he did it. He went in for a kiss! I was completely caught off guard, knowing that no man in his right mind would attempt to kiss me after a date like that. I did my very best to avoid it, and only partly succeeded. He got an awkward corner of my lip but mostly cheek and an overall signal that I wasn't interested.

I walked upstairs and changed his name in my telephone to "Curb Pusher."

Needless to say I woke up bruised. I had bruises on my knee, hip, butt and the heel of my hand. But I also woke up with a great story.

Next!

Bachelor Number 4

Bachelor Number 4: The Two-Parter

Yes, you read that correctly, Bachelor Number 4 requires two posts!

Bachelor Number 4: Not my boyfriend (My boyfriend is number 5... that post is in the works)

Let me start at the beginning.

Rob sent me the first message on OkCupid. His sent a one-liner about me being a Jason Segel fan. I looked at my profile and realized that yes, in fact, I had listed my favorite show and movie as those with Jason Segel. For Rob to read my profile thoroughly enough to notice that, and also be confident enough to send a single sentence as the first message was intriguing.

After a few weeks of bantering back and forth through the website I decided that Rob had passed my screening for creeps and seemed like a genuinely nice and normal guy. He asked me out for dinner and I excitedly accepted the invitation. He picked a restaurant just down the street from me (don't worry, he didn't know it was just down the street from my place) and I was to meet him there at seven.

Naturally, I was stuck at work later than I had anticipated, came home and took Wilbur out and scrambled to get dressed. I threw on my leopard print shoes, a loud red scarf, huge gold earrings and ran out the door. As I scurried down the street I called Erin, willing her to answer the phone with every ring. She finally answered and knew that I was on my way to a date. I explained to her that I was super nervous but hadn't even had enough time to process it. I had to give up on my original plan of arriving twenty minutes early so I would be the approached, and instead I would be doing the approaching. I expressed my frustration with the situation.

"I don't want to have to walk up to him! He needs to find me. I need to be sitting at the bar and he needs to find me and walk up to me!"

"Well, you need to get over that. You're late."

"Ahhh! I know. Yikes. What time is it?"

"7:58."

"I only have two minutes to get there!* Maybe he'll be running late and I'll be there first. But I hope he isn't running late! I hate when people are late. I. Am. So. Nervous."

"Clearly. Get over it. You'll be fine. What are you wearing?"

"My leopard shoes."

"My sister has leopard shoes? Who are you? Did you go shoe shopping again?"

"Yes! And these shoes are awesome, you would be jealous. Your sister is more fashionable that you think."

"Ha. Fashionable? Well, okay. Have fun in your shoes. I gotta go."

"What?! You are going to leave your own sister freaking out and running to her date?"

"Yes. Have fun!"

I held the phone in my hand, obsessively checking the time as I speed walked the last few blocks. I checked the time just as I was walking in the door. I was only three minutes late. But I was completely out of breath. I put my telephone in my purse and tried to slow my breathing.

I walked into the restaurant and immediately saw Rob at the bar. He was cute, but nothing special. He looked exactly like his photos. Shoot. I was hoping he would look better than his photos.

Get over yourself, Meaghan. He could think the exact same thing about you.

I walked up to Rob just as the person on the bar stool next to him was leaving. 

"Hi. Rob?"

"Yes! Meaghan, it's nice to meet you."

We awkwardly shook hands, I ordered a drink and we stayed at the bar for the few minutes until our table was ready.

The conversation during dinner was easier than any date I had been on so far, and I was pleasantly surprised. We chatted about our jobs, our families and the online dating stereotypes. I told him I had heard that one website was for people only interested in, well, the physical stuff. He told me that he heard if a girl sends a message first she must be crazy.

Uh oh. Maybe that was why I received so few responses from people I had messaged... 

During dinner the conversation flowed as smoothly as the bottle of wine we split.

When we were finished we went down the street to another bar for another drink.  I made it home much later than I anticipated with a smile on my face.

Two days later Rob asked me out again. I accepted, but I was hesitant. As wonderful as our conversation had been, I hadn't felt the spark I wanted and needed. Maybe that would come during the second date. I was hoping so.

To be continued...

*I know how to tell time. For my sister on the east coast it was 7:58, meaning that it was 6:58 for me in the Central Time Zone.