Mile 20:
Finishing with a smile:
Right after the finish:
All of us after the race (Thx Mom and Dad for coming to support me!! And thanks to Jeremy for taking care of the kids during all of those long training runs!! I am very lucky!):
As a lot you probably already know, I ran my first marathon on Oct. 16th. About 3 1/2 weeks ago. I thought I would share my thoughts as to how the whole experience went. It's a little long, but I want to remember this someday, so figured I should write it down :-)........
First off, I have to say that it was extremely challenging. It took me a couple of weeks of thinking about how I could have done things differently to realize that it most likely would have been very tough no matter what I did to prepare.
The weather was perfect, low 60's, however the course was much more difficult than the 1/2 marathon course. There were quite a few hills within the first 8 miles. Everything went fairly smoothly until mile 17. This is when I was really feeling the pain of running a marathon. By mile 19 I was questioning my reasoning of why I decided to run this race :-). Jeremy, Maddy, Colby and my parents were waiting to cheer me on at mile 20 and this gave me a new-found sense of energy and focus (sort-of :-).
There were people along the side of the road handing out twizzlers, donuts, gummy bears, you name it --- I did take a few gummy bears, but I was afraid to eat any of this stuff as I thought it would make me sick. I did have a couple of GU packs (energy gel-type stuff) and those seemed to help, but I felt like my body was moving along with nothing left in me. The only way I can describe the way I felt is like I had the flu and my entire body felt extremely sick and weak, yet I had to run several more miles. I remember thinking that this does not seem medically safe and felt a little concerned.
I did walk some after mile 18 but walking almost seemed harder than running as I was able to feel the pain in my muscles and feet more. When I was running I couldn't feel that as much. Somehow I found the strength to continue running; still not sure how.
Once I got to the last mile things went well and I finished off the race feeling decent. My official time was 5 hours 8 minutes. I was originally shooting for 4 1/2 hours (I was right at 2 hr. 14 min. at the half-way point), but did not anticipate the few walking bouts later in the race. I have since found out that my time is right at the average for women runners in a marathon, so I am happy with that!!
The recovery was not too bad --- On the day of the race, I was pretty much useless, but by Monday was feeling better (just had sore muscles). On Tuesday was still a little sore and back to normal by Wednesday! The one thing I did notice was that I was drinking a ton of water that entire week after the race and just could never seem to stay hydrated. I guess the race took every last ounce of liquid out of my body!!
To re-cap, I would have to say that I am very glad that I trained for and ran this race. I can't say if or when I will run another one. The 1/2 marathon is seeming like a better option for me at this point :-) However, last year at this time I could not have imagined running a full marathon, so I guess a lot can change in a year! Definately an experience I will never forget and one of my biggest accomplishments to date!
