National Marathon

So, I finished the marathon in one piece. Below are some of the highlights. I would like to say that the body is an amazing thing and I can't express enough how happy and grateful I am to have a healthy one. I feel strong and capable of pushing even harder after accomplishing something like that. I finished in 4:23 which was a little less than my goal of 4:30. Jackie was a great friend to keep pushing me and to even get me to commit in the first place. I was content sticking to my normal running routine. We had a pasta night the night before to get us properly nourished. Jana and Laura (on the left) ran the half marathon and did a great job. Jackie and I ran the marathon. We started early in the morning. The temp was in the 30's. Not great for observers, but perfect for running.

Jackie and I before the start. I was lame enough to drop my timing chip at the car and was paranoid I wouldn't be able to do the race, but luckily Alex was able to retrieve it in the nic of time!

While Jackie's family and mine were waiting, they were freezing, so they piled in the van and watched a movie and stayed warm!

I was impressed that Alex had gotten Anna to keep her bow in. I have a hard enough time doing that!

Here are Jackie and I coming to restock at around the 13 mile mark. Alex and Aaron (Jackie's husband) were ready and then pushed us right back out to keep going.

We were totally wiped out, but also had a sort of energy from finishing! I will say that gu's are awfully wonderful at refueling, but I am so sick of them. Alex bought me 2 gel packs (green apple) and those were much better, but I think no matter what you are taking you get sick of them. Still, I wouldn't have done without them. PayDays at the end of a really long run are like heaven!! The last six miles were worse than the first 20. I looked at my timing cycles on the official site and found that I was running 9 1/2 min miles for the first 20 miles and then slowed way down for the last six. It didn't help that for the last 2 or 3 miles it was hilly and spectators kept saying "One more hill and then there are no more" Well, there were a lot more and there was even an incline going into the stadium where the finish line was. But, next time I will know not to relax or have expectations of it getting easier until it is finished!