Marathon Post

Well folks, it's 5:50am Mountain Time. I'm currently sitting in the Salt Lake airport after being up all night. Some friends and I went to see the Backstreet Boys last night (that's a post yet to come) then I finished packing when I got home and hopped into an airport shuttle at 3:30am. Now, with 20 minutes before it's time to board and lacking the energy to be able to read and stay awake, I'm writing the promised blog post about my first marathon.

We had a 7am flight out of Salt Lake to San Diego (with a transfer in Las Vegas). It was quite an early morning. A friend was nice enough to give me a ride at 5:15 in the morning. Friday wasn't very eventful. We walked to the expo center to pick up our packets. It ended up being about a 3 mile walk. My shoulders got burned big time, which did not feel so hot while running.

Saturday was our Inspiration Pasta Dinner (Lunch). And what an inspiration it was. One of the speakers had recently lost his teenage daughter to one of the forms of blood cancers. Another Team in Training chapter had just lost their "walk coach" to his battle with Leukemia. The stories made me cry. However, hearing the numbers of how much we raised for the LLS was inspiring. I believe the number was 12 million just from the fundraising participants alone. Since the San Diego Rock N Roll Marathon benefited the LLS this year, they made even more money off of the public's registration. Another inspiration was the little 87-year-old who was running her 13th marathon - she's participated in the past 13 of 14 San Diego Rock n Roll Marathons. Crazy, huh?


The Pasta Dinner welcoming committee! It was quite an entrance!

After lunch, my TNT roomie (Sam) and I rented a car and toured around. Our first stop was a beach in La Jolla. It was cloudy, go figure. Then later we met with Angel (one of my mentors and my best friend's mom) and Mishellay. We explored Old Towne, took a trip to Wal-mart, and just had fun.


San Diego roommates

Sunday was race morning. I'm not sure exactly what to say about it. We got there around 5:45am - a half hour before race start time. It was the perfect amount of time to get there beforehand, unlike the Disney Princess race. I kept an excellent steady run/walk pace up until mile 13 or so, then my running length started to get shorter and shorter. (My friends were amazed that I was texting them and answering phone calls during the race - but I only did so when I stopped to walk). After mile 18, it started to hurt. I could feel the blisters on the sides of my feet, my stomach was growling, and it was sooo hot. What kept me going was all of the encouragement from other TNT participants and cheerleaders along the way. I also found myself thinking about the names I painted on the back of my jersey. They were the real reason I was there, and I had to remember that.

Running for Allie, Julia, Rex, & in memory of Lesa.

I got to the second cut-off point (20.7 miles) with 45 minutes to an hour to spare. Once I reached that point, I started to walk. I knew I would finish. I started to run/walk again at mile 25 just to make sure I wasn't too stiff to run the last .2 miles across the finish the line. When I reached 26 miles, one of the TNT coaches came up and ran beside me. She congratulated me on everything I've done, and that's when I started to cry. I was really about to finish a marathon!

After my victory run across the finish line, I heard my name being yelled. Angel and Mishellay (who had finished waaaay before I did) had waited for me. It was so great to be able to share this opportunity with Angel. She gave me her medal to bring home to give to Allie. This race was for her. Angel took care of me and immediately made me get iced and loaded me up with snacks and goodies.

That night, instead of going to the Victory Party, Sam and I stayed in our hotel room. Mishellay came and stayed with us while Angel went out with some old high school friends. We ordered pizza and watched movies. The perfect night after running a marathon.

Our weekend went by quickly but it was so much fun. I don't want to forget how much 26.2 miles hurt at the time but I surprisingly felt amazing afterward. I had some battle wound blisters, some bad sunburn, and minor aches. However, in comparison to many others that I saw, I felt AWESOME! I know that I had said that I would never do a full marathon again, but I want to do another one and finish under 7 hours. That's my new goal. Maybe the Philly one in September???