Mayor's Marathon - RunMarathon

I ran a total of 2 times after CapTex Tri on Memorial Day before this marathon. My longest run was around Mother's Day and that was 15 miles. I didn't feel very prepared coming in, so my goal was to finish a little before 4:56 which was my time in 2004. During the first mile I was breathing a little hard and thought I'd started off too fast, but it turned out to be a 10:34 mile! I thought I was in trouble for sure considering I thought I was around a 9:30 mile. My legs started feeling better so my goal was to run 10 minute miles until I couldn't do that any longer (I thought that was going to be around mile 13). We saw a moose on the other side of the road at mile 2 that we slowed down to check out. Then, I met a 70 year old at mile 6 that had a number on the back of his calf from a tri he did the weekend before so we talked a little bit about triathlon, but I'm no good at talking and running so I said goodbye. Mile 7 started the tank trail and with extremely weak ankles I pretty much ran with my head down to make sure I didn't twist one. I remembered from the last time I'd ran this race that there was a horrible uphill around mile 12, but I wasn't sure where it was exactly. I started looking for it around mile 11 and found it soon (I don't remember where exactly) I just know that from about mile 11-15 I was breathing pretty hard and thought that was the end of my 10 minute miles. At about mile 15 I began being circled by the biggest and loudest bee I'd ever seen! He'd fly right in front of my face and his first two or three trips around me I didn't do anything, but on his last trip he buzzed right in front of my eyes and freaked me out! I'm sure I looked hysterical screaming and swatting as I ran, but all that commotion must've scared him away! At mile 16 we finally get back to civilization and miles 17-19 are lined with supporters including my in-laws and 2 year old! She loves going to races and has already done a kids K herself. It was so great to see her clapping and yelling for me. I wanted to stop, but I was on track to break 4:30 for the first time, so I waved and blew her a kiss. Miles 20-24 were the toughest for me. My feet started burning and I knew I was going to have some serious blisters (I've never had that problem before). I just kept telling myself that I only had another hour and I wanted so badly to break 4:30 (4:56 and 4:40 are my 2 previous marathon times) so I held my 10 minute miles. My plan was to make it to the bottom of the hill (at about mile 25.5) with plenty of time to get up it and still break 4:30. I knew my 10 min miles would put me finishing around 4:20, so I figure 10 extra minutes was plenty of time. I got to the bottom of the hill and grabbed a cup of water and started walking up the hill. After my water I started running again, but that was killing me, so I slowed to a walk. Once I made it to the top I started running and didn't stop until the finish line. My last mile was definitely the slowest at around 13 minutes, but I knew that was going to happen!

I would say train more, but I beat my last time, so who cares!

I let them take off my chip and then found my family. I grabbed my daughter and we headed to the table to get my medal. She was already wearing my husband's medal so I had to convince them that I had just finished and that that was my husband's medal. I grabbed a bottle of water and a cookie and plopped down on the ground and took off my shoes. Sat around talking for a bit and then hobbled to the truck and went back to my in-laws.


Don't think I could've gone any faster that time.


I was disappointed in the t-shirts. They were the same for all races (marathon-kids race). The shirt I got in '04 was my favorite with a big 26 on the back. The medals were the same except for the year. I wasn't feeling to great afterwards so we didn't really hang around to enjoy the post race stuff so I'm not sure how that was. Overall I really enjoyed it!