I did it!

I ran a Marathon!

and get this...

I enjoyed doing it.

Seriously.

We woke up at 4:30 Sat. morning to rain. I was SOOO nervous. I was second guessing everything.
Did I train well enough?
Did I drink enough water, or did I have too much?
What about Gatorade?
I think I may have eaten too much last night. Shoot.
I should have brought rain gear. Shoot.
I grabbed the Tylenol bottle instead of Advil. Shoot.
Should I wear my shorts or running capri's?
What about my top?

I am not kidding my head was spinning! The bus ride to the Start line was border line torturous. We unloaded and had about 40 minutes until the race started. We hopped in the extremely long bathroom lines and it started to rain harder, it turned into an absolute down pour. There we were, waiting in 30 something degree weather, soaking wet, wondering WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE DOING HERE??!!!!

The race started and we were off.

It stopped raining a ways into the run, but it didn't hold. The rain started back up and then, rain turned to more rain, and more rain turned to hail. It sounds miserable, and to tell you the truth at the starting line IT WAS, but while we were running I just kept thinking "I would take rain over heat any day". The hail, I could have done without, but you can't barter with mother nature, so we dealt.

Anyway.... fast forward to the end, and this is how it turned out:

Beautiful sunny finish.

I feel so extremely blessed to have had this experience. It was hard... really hard, but that is what made it so wonderful. The scenery was incredible, and this body of mine, as hard as I may be on it from time to time, carried me 26.2 miles! I think it deserves a medal... oh wait, it got one ;)


I ran the marathon and did my long training runs with Angie Chandler, and Heidi Marriott.
It is amazing how close we became talking throughout our runs and accomplishing this together. It is crazy but I didn't turn my ipod on once during the whole race.

Heidi finished in 4:08, which was awesome.
Me and Angie stuck together and made our goal of finishing just under 4:30.
I was very happy with that.

Love these girls.

I was only planning on Joe and the kids at the finish line, so I was elated that my Dad, Rosalie, and Nicole and Daniel came to cheer me on.



I wasn't expecting it to be such an emotional thing, but from about mile 22 on I was fighting back tears. I just kept thinking... "I am doing this. I am doing this!" When I crossed the finish line, I hugged Heidi and Angie, and the tears came. I hugged my family and more tears, and honestly, it felt so good. I just felt grateful... for everything.

I have never wanted to run more than one marathon. I just wanted to check it off my list, but I have to say, I loved it so much, I am not ruling out another when the kids are a little older. I would love to run one with Joe someday.

What a day.

Yep.

What a day.

The sense of accomplishment is extraordinary!