Done...done...done..

All right, all right, all right! I finished the half marathon-and barely. I know everyone must be reading this going, yeah right, I'm sure you finished it and were just fine, but let me tell you, that did not happen this year at all. I literally barely made it over the finish line after almost killing myself in this race. Let me explain. I apologize in advance for the length of this blog.
The morning went off without a problem. I ate my banana before the race, and I felt totally awesome. I was so ready. We got onto Trax, and got to the U about 15 minutes before the race started. It was a little cold, but not too bad, I didn't even bring a long sleeve shirt. So, the gun went off, and so did I. I had a great pace for the first few miles. Unfortunately, after a couple of miles, my feet started to burn. Like, literally, they felt like they were on fire. I just kept going though, because I wasnt't going to stop. When I got to about mile 10, I realized, there was stuff on my feet that was doing it to me. The night before the race, PJ gave me this cream stuff that I had put on there that she told me would make my feet feel good. Which they did, the night before, but during the race, my feet felt like they were on fire, and I was almost in tears over it! Dang it!
When I got to about mile six, I got a bloody nose. Of course I did! This is what I do! So I did what I could-I pretty much just snot-rocketed what I could out, and the rest, I just had to bleed into my shirt. It stopped after a bit, and that was awesome, but at this point, I was like, man, what else could go wrong? Man oh man, why did I have to ask that question?!
I hit my wall at mile 10. I had a really hard time keeping going. And then, of course, mile 11 is all uphill, and I was moving so slowly, I for sure didn't think I would even make it. There was even a point where I was talking out loud to myself, trying to psych myself up that hill. I bet the other runners loved me then! When I got to the top of the hill, I thought things would get a little easier, because its sorta downhill. That was a wrong thought. It was a little easier, but nowhere near the easiness I thought it would be. So I was basically just hobbling in at the end.
I rounded the corner to the last .01 mile of the race, where all the spectators were. At this point, I was just trying to get to the finish line. I wasn't trying to find anyone (sorry, parents!), I was just trying to get to the giant clock. I wasn't even aware of the time at this point, I could only focus on finishing. Which I did, yay! And then about 4 seconds after I crossed the finish line, I collapsed, onto the ground.
Luckily, there was a racer right behind me that got me. I was kneeling on the ground for a minute, and he's trying to talk me through it, all encouraging. A minute or so later, the EMT people are over by me, trying to get me to stand up. So I have 2 EMT's and the helpful other racer helping me (all right, carrying me) into the medical tent, which was really close to the finish, thank goodness. As soon as we got into the tent, the racer left (well I couldn't expect him to stay there, but I appreciate his help!) and the 2 EMT's apparently thought I could stand on my own my then. Well, that was definitely wrong. As soon as they let me go, I just crumpled onto the ground again. Like, 4 people rushed over to me, and they all helped me onto a bed. They immediately shoved a cup of Gatorade into my hand and told me to drink. They started asking me questions, and the first thing I did was take off my shoes and socks to get the burning to stop. I was really shaky, but I drank the Gatorade and answered their questions. After maybe 10 minutes or so, I signed their form saying I was leaving of my own consent in good health. The rest of the day, I felt ok, just sore and tired.
So, that was my race experience. I didn't finish in the time I wanted, which was disappointing. I finished in 1:54, and my placing was 1125 out of 4621. My placing in my age was 106 out of 621, so I didn't do too badly. I don't know if I'll do this again next year, but if I do, I'll just have to know how to pace myself a little better so that I don't crash at the end!