I DID IT

I promised a post today on the marathon, and I am so tired right now that I can barely muster it up. I finished the marathon, yes. 13.1 miles total. I am pretty sure I didn't come in last. They time you as you cross the start line, and you are assigned a corral (kind of like cattle) to start from. I was in the final corral, so I was at the end of about 13,000 people.

There was definitely a lot of excitement in the air when we arrived at, oh 7:15 am. We stretched, had a banana (on top of the homemade french toast that Josh made us for breakfast). Then we ended up in our corral.

At about 7:55, the national anthem was sung, and then the race started shortly after that. By the time we got to the start line, it was already about 8:15. We hauled some ass the first mile with some major fast walking skills and had a pretty good time with just the walking. We wanted to make sure we were fairly warmed up so that we could do some good running. At mile 2, we began to run, and we did great. Then I had to pee. So we had to stop. We made up our targeted mile time quickly, and kept a pretty damn good pace. We alternated between running and walking. As we approached mile 5, the course becomes two sided, and would you believe this - the first runners were already finishing with one mile left? (Also, before the start of the race, the announcer had mentioned this one runner who had completed the 13.1 miles last year in under an hour...Crazy? Mmmm, yeah.) Anyway, that was somewhat of an inspiration and we kicked it into somewhat high gear.

All was going well, and we were approaching my neighborhood, so I was really excited and hoping to see Josh and the girls. Somewhere between mile seven and eight, my legs decided that hell no, they were not happy and what in the name of you know who summoned you to do this to yourself? Well, I did, legs. My shins hurt. My calves hurt. And my knees. Oh, my knees. I was stiff from the knee down. I kept telling myself to work through the pain and that soon enough there would be a medical station that would give me some Tylenol. Sooner than I thought, there was one. Only, they had just ran out of the Tylenol, but LUCKY ME, there was another station just two miles ahead. I worked through the pain....

Then, as we approached our neighborhood at around miles 9 and 10, I looked everywhere for my family. We didn't see them at all. Then I thought well maybe they would be at the finish line....

Right before mile 11, there was another medical station and I got me some Tylenol, but I thought by the time I finish, it will just be kicking in. I was kind of mad. In any case, I walked a fair amount after mile 8. Every now and then I would get a jolt of adrenaline and get kicked into high gear. I mean, I was still passing people!

As we neared the finish line, I started a very slow jog. All the people. It was so amazing. Everybody was cheering, and there were many cheerers along the way saying "you can do it" and "great job - you're doing so well". And then crossing the finish line. I think I cried briefly - for the pain and for actually finishing. Unfortunately, we missed seeing Josh and the girls and they missed seeing us. Probably by seconds.

So, I finished. We finished. And we made good time. And I can pretty much guarantee that I was not in the bottom 10.