My First (and probably last) Marathon

Well.... the LONG awaited LONG run I wanted to try and defeat, came and went, and I'm not sure if I will ever try again. But it was quite the workout. I can now say that I have ran a Marathon. It was probably one of the hardest things I have ever done, but I'm proud to say that I finished. My goal was to finish in 4 hours and 30 mins. I thought it was a reasonable time, for changing my training program from a half marathon to a whole marathon 6 weeks ago. I originally was going to just do a 1/2 but it was full... so I said I'll just do the full. HA! I came out strong... maybe even a bit too strong, doing the first 1/2 in 1 hr. 58 mins. I had another 13.1 miles to go. I was still going strong until I couldn't feel my lower body. My quads were in the most pain I have probably ever been in, and I'm not exactly sure how they were moving to be honest, and I was only at mile 18. That's when I really felt the pain... I slowed down quite a lot. I didn't stop, which a lot of people around that time did, I kept going, and around mile 23, I found some deep energy that carried me through to the finish... Finishing in 4 hours 22 mins, which was under my goal time! Todd was there to be the supportive husband, watching and cheering me do the long 26.2 miles. I'm adding some of the photos from the long haul that he took. After the race, I couldn't really move my legs. My quads were so tight that I am having a hard time walking. I heard that I'll be sore for about a week, and I totally believe it. I can only walk a little bit, and the strain that all the miles had on my legs were quite something. I'm not sure what I'm going to do next, but I will make sure to train a bit longer for it. But YEAH.... I FINISHED 26.2 MILES!!!!



This is at the start, as you can see I'm smiling... haha!



When I was booking at mile 7.



Finishing on the track with TONS of people cheering for you. It was awesome!



That's me finishing! (My actual finish time was 4:22, they didn't start your time until you crossed the starting line and I was in the back)



I got a medal!! Just for finishing... how cool! I'm gonna sport that thing for a while- JK!!!

Thanks for all your prayers and encouragment! Love you all!