craig, the best boyfriend ever, put together a pacing chart for us where we would start off in the mid 10's and every two miles increase in speed a little so we were finishing in the mid 9's for an overall pace of 10:00/mile. through mile 15 we were spot on. in fact, even with a bio break each, we were still about a minute ahead of schedule. i was fired up. and i was feeling great. i smiled and enjoyed the atmosphere every step of the way through 15. was loving it and even thinking, if i don't meet my time goal, i'll be ok with it because this experience is awesome. it even went through my head that i would consider doing another marathon, even though during training, i swore them off. :) then 15 happened and it was all a battle from then on. everything below my waste hurt and i was having a hard time fighting through it. then my mind started to go. i never doubted that i wouldn't finish, i doubted my ability in reaching my goals. then, that jovial "it's ok if i don't finish in the time i want to" attitude turned into, "i can't believe you can't finish in the time you wanted to" attitude. so then i put a smile on my face thinking i could fake myself out. it worked some, but i still had 8 miles to go and trickery could only last so long. so i walked some. i ran some. i realized that walking hurt worse than running, so i'd run some more. but mostly, i just wanted to be done. even when i reached mile 23 and knew it was just a little more than a 5k left, i still couldn't give anymore. i was exceptionally frustrated and hurting, bad. again, i just wanted it to be over. i think the most frustrating thing is even though i finished, i didn't have that elation of "holy cow, i just ran a marathon" like i thought i should. i haven't really figured out why, either. it's somewhat frustrating because i do know what an accomplishment it is, but for some reason, i don't have that over joyed feeling that i think i should have. hmph.

HIGHLIGHTS:
-craig ran with me stride for stride. loved it. loved having him with me every step of the way. was a huge help for me. THANK YOU!
-saw jenny at mile 4. this was a bad thing for her because it meant her knees weren't cooperating and after that sank in with me, it made me very sad for her, but it was a good thing for me because she's my training buddy and biggest cheerleader and i loved seeing her.
-the volunteers were exceptional. they were so encouraging and would call me by name and tell me i looked great for my first marathon...it was really cool.
-jcagg was all over the course from mile 8ish through 20ish. very cool to see a friendly face and hear a big ole cheer from a great friend often.
-having people all over the course was very encouraging.
-plenty of aid stations and fluids.
-had my brother and sister in law and fitzger cheering me in at the finishers chute. was cool to see them.
-finished my very first marathon with my boyfriend by my side, step for step. what is better than that?!?!?!

i am not a long distance runner...not sure if i'll ever be. i have trained my body to go in quick bursts on a soccer field and a basketball court for years and was very successful at that. this year i really tried to dedicate myself to becoming a runner. i made some really good strides and i really am proud of myself for that. i think my biggest limiter is time. the only thing i can do is continue to run. last year at this time i was training for a 10k at the end of december. this year i did a marathon in december. obviously, progress is being made and i don't take any of that away from myself.

did the marathon shuffle because i could not walk at all. tried to find todd, jenny and fitz, but we missed each other until we got to the car about 45 min later. got a finisher photo with craig and our shirts and medals.


ha. my own self. it's just a process. keep running, keep getting better and faster.


awesome first marathon. seriously, they put on one heck of an event. was very happy that i chose this as my first (and maybe last...hahaha)