First Marathon

Riding the dart train to the start worked very well.   It was funny to see the regular train commuters get on with standing room only asking where we where headed at 6am. Everything was going well.  I had a donation jacket on. [This is a jacket you wear until the race starts to keep you warm, the volunteers then pick them up after you start running and donate them]  Nutrition wise it all seemed to be going well. I started to run and everything felt good I was running about a 10 minute pace which is about what I was hoping to do for the first half. [Lots of people passing me,  I wanted to run faster but held back the urge] My right foot was hurting before I got to the halfway mark. I realized my shoes must have been tied too tight as soon as I crossed the halfway mark I stopped and redid my shoe. FInished half at 2.10. I was really feeling good except numb foot.  We were on the water running next to the lake, White Rock. As I ran all the way down to the turnaround legs and back got a little tougher. I started to get a lot slower: my legs hurt a little bit , but my back was hurting it was just kind of a soreness throughout.  [ I've got to work on strengthening my lower back this year ] As I made the turn around realized that the wind was in my face now and it was about 60 degrees with a little bit of drizzling rain. As soon as we left the lake area about mile 17 a downpour of rain began to fall. I felt colder and I started to hurt a lot more after walking a little, it seemed I could not get started in any kind of jog or run. I barely made it to about mile 20 which is where I saw Pam. After that it was all about just trying to finish those last six miles. I jogged as much as I could. At one point, I tried to stretch but my leg muscles hurt even worse  so I decided no more of trying to stretch. I started to feel defeated as I was running and realize I was going to miss my four and a half hour mark that I really wanted.   For some reason about mile 22 I started thinking about how much training I missed while I was sick. [like my life flashing through my eyes, I was thinking of each training I missed and every bad meal I ate]. My first marathon took a tough 5 hour and35min. It's my first one and its in the books finally. I was excited to see my brother and everybody there at the end. After the finish line they make you walk in a corral that felt like 2 miles to pick up free bag and medals and a bottle of water. They wrapped me in a foil blanket that felt very good. We went and had chicken fried steak and eggs at cafe Brazil.

I was very down on myself last night for missing my goal so much.  Tomorrow it's back to Ironman training with a purpose.  But I will be thinking of that 26.2 that I will run near 4 hours next fall!!!