Being my first marathon, I am sure this will be long winded.....
I'd like to thank my family first and foremost for allowing me the time to train for this tremendous opportunity. Without their support, I could not have done it. Also thanks to the various donk's I ran with at the oval (Amyjo,DJ,Lara,anyone else I missed), Deanna, Anna and Pete for running on the Glacial Drumlin for 12 with me and Lara and Kimk for coming to my home so they could tag along on so many of the outdoor miles I packed on over the past 5 months. You guys made long runs go quickly.
As for the marathon....I couldn't believe the number of people that participated in this race day. I think we figured out there were over 6000 racers between all the distances. Holy Crap. Well, I started in the back of the pack with Pete and ran with him for a bit. Very nice to be running my first mile with someone that was feeling a bit like me..overwhelmed, anxious, excited, scared out of my gourd, curious as to how this day would end. Anyway, just before mile 1 I decided it was time to go find my 4 hour pacer or I could easily shoot the breeze and play this one safe. Said good by to Pete and good luck and I was on my way. Did I mention there were a lot of people? It took me 10:41 to do the first mile. Decided I better pick it up and find that pacer. Oops, did my second mile in less than 9 minutes. Where or where is that dangfounded pacer. Mile three came and there was no water. WTF? I had to wait til 4 to start drinking. Had a bottle before the run, so that wasn't the worst thing I guess. Kept picking off people one by one looking for that pacer. Oh, there is one. There is a pace team sign on the back of that woman that says 4 hours. Stay here. Whew. Ran behind her for a while and decided, this seems a little slow, I am going to pick it up again. Got in front of her and found that she was not a pacer, but was just with the group. ERG!! That sort of irritated me. Maybe if I visited the booth during the expo I would've known that. Oh well, move on. Saw that I was on the 9' pace for the first 5 and was happy to see that and felt great. Started talking to anyone that would listen to me. I can tell if they don't like it so I wish them luck and move on to the next victim. Ran a couple of miles with and Ironman. I asked him how much time he thought he would cut off on a stand alone marathon compared to the IM. He thought about and hour and a half and then laughed. He wished me luck and I kept going. Met a young woman that was going to UofDayton for prePT. She was going for a PR of 4 hours as well. I offered to run with her so we could keep each other company and hit our goals. Unfortunately, mile 9 hit and I HAD to go. Really. Stopped for the Port-a-Potty and someone had just gone in. Told her I was timing her, but there was no pressure. Someone got in line behind me and I loudly told her what I was doing and for the person in the Port-a-john not to worry cuz we couldn't hear her...hee hee. Lucky for me it took her less than 30 seconds to hit and git. Of course I didn't time myself;) After I did my thing and started to run again I thought to myself...you dumby, you never factored in these "breaks" or water station walks. Oh well, live and learn. The next few miles went by pretty quickly but I do remember my left knee starting to hurt (dull ache)around mile 11. Didn't pay attention to it and moved along. Hit the half way mark. There were so many people there cheering everyone on. I love the fact that our names were on our race numbers. So nice to have my name called out for those cheers. I got pretty emotional there. Trying to hold the tears back was not a smart idea as I started to hyperventilate a little. Had a little talk with myself that I had just as much more to run so I had to get a handle on myself. Breathing returned to normal and I kept trudging along. The first half of this marathon is "easy" compared the hell waiting on the next half. Can you say HILLS? I'm not talking rollers. Sure, if you were on a bike, maybe. But I think these were more like climbers. Gorham was short, but steep. Quads started burning. Maple BLUFF area. Yeah, BLUFF. YOUCH. I can tell you exactly where I started to slow down. There was one continous climb that I had to walk part way. I thought my legs would say thanks for that. Unfortunately, my quads kept getting tighter. Stopped after 17 to try a stretch. Felt good on the right, but my left ham was about to seize, so I abandonded that idea and kept running. Some dude pulled out of his driveway and thought he could drive out of his subdivision. Ha. Too many runners at once. I ran along side and asked how fast we were going. 7mph. OOOO, I better slow down. Then I challenged him to a race. He thought not. Probably smart. Finally came out of Maple Bluffs and thought...I am headed back. WOOHOO. party. But I still haven't seen Clint and the kids. Where are they? You know, most of the reason I didn't stop running to this point is because you never know who is going to be around the corner. Don't want to get caught walking..that would be bad:) I did see a sign that read "pain is temporary, pride is forever", that would be my mantra for the rest of the race. Still running on the side of the road and my quads are killing me. I think around mile 19 I checked out mentally. I was in a fog, haze, daze. One foot in front of the other. Just keep moving. Where is Clint, I really need to see him? Finally saw him around mile 21, I think. Here come the tears again. Lara had jumped in the car with them to root me on too. High fives and hugs and kisses to everyone. I found out later that my boys were worried about me cuz I was breathing weird. Clint told them not to worry, and that I was just so excited to see them that it made my breathing goofy and I would be all right. Took a while, but I calmed down. Only a few miles left. What could be better than runnning along the lake shore, right. Look forward to that. Ran thru 23 and Tracy (fishlips) called out my name. I didn't even see her. Talk about the daze. Turned around to give her a big hug and thanks for the cheering. Got back on course and started interspersing walking with the "running". This last 3.2 miles was the hardest ever. I'd have quick bursts of energy just to have it zapped as quickly. Heard some cheering from the cars driving by. Wait, they are saying my name. Oh, it's Craig on his bullhorn barking out orders to run, run, run. That helped alot. Found them at mile 24 or 24.5, I can't quite recall. Walked the water station. Frowned when I looked at my watch knowing I wouldn't hit the 4 hour mark. Amyjo and Craig were great. Just saying all the right things, building me up and snapping photo's like I was some celebrity. I couldn't tell you for the life of me what they said, but I know it helped to get me going again. So cool how friendly faces help with this incredible journey. Ran some more, walked some more and hit mile 25. ALMOST THERE!!! Looked at my watch and it was right at 4 hours. Wasn't as upset as I thought I would be because fade hit so much earlier. Walked past the sign, made my peace with not hitting the goal, picked myself up, put myself somewhat back together and trudged along again. New goal, 4:10. Saw a guy walking with a tshirt that said "final exam, 26.2 mile. Did I graduate?" I patted him on the back and told him he did, so he started running as well and thanked ME for getting him going again. The IM I was talking with earlier rode up on my heels and told me what a great job I was doing, so that little lift set me on a "sprint" to the finish. Um, way to early. Ended up walking again about 100 yards later. I laugh now, but wasn't then. Repeated my mantra to get me up that last little blip of a hill before turning the corner to the finish shoot. Ran down the hill, heard my family and friends cheering me on. I felt like I was sprinting, but pictures would show otherwise. My 9 year old son Ryan broke out of the crowd to grab my hand and run in with me. More happy tears and excitement. I was gonna hit that 4:10...well with 43 seconds after it, but I'm not counting that;)

Train at a faster pace. I think because I trained at 9:30 to 10 minute pace it didn't help me much on the second half of the race.

Clint and the gang were all right before the finish shoot. Ryan, my 9 year old, ran into the finish with me. I had absolutely no strength left in my legs. He was literally pulling me for a few seconds. I had to ask him to slow down, how funny is that:) WALKED after I heard the final beep of my journey. I also heard the announcer say my name. Ryan let me lean on him. Thank goodness he is so tall. He helped carry my chocolate milk and water. Just kept walking with me and telling me how proud of me he was. Total tears of happiness and accomplishment running down these cheeks. Walked to see my official time and the computers were down. Walked to see if I could catch Pete coming in. Walked to the port-a-john's and spotted Cramyjo headed my way. Did my business and came out to paparazzi. Craig was my personal photographer. They came to take me to Clint. Walked and stood around waiting for Pete. Had to see him come in.


Um, I pretty much trained my heart and soul for this marathon. If I had to pick anything, I guess it would be the heat that eventually came out. Oh, and the fact that my quads were sooooo tight by mile 19. Should have waited in line for a massage.


Unbelievable support on the course and for the race in general. Plenty of opportunities to releave yourself, water at every station but the second (not sure how that happened) and the perfect selection of GU flavors. I was nervous about that. Only one station had just Espresso, so I was happy I had brought a couple of my own. Start lines were a little confusing since the half and full were at seperate places. Shirts were not unisex this year so mine is waaay too small. Wish the website would have clarified that when registering, but not a deal breaker. I would definately recommend this marathon to anyone and everyone.