At about mile 6 I became claustrophobic (in was crazy crowded), so on an uphill, I moved to the left and hammered. I looked back and did not see Bonnie anymore. We talked and said if we became separated that we would meet at mile 9 (the 1/2 mary turn around), so I just trotted along at seemed like a pretty good pace knowing I would wait for her there. I looked at my Garmin at one point and it said my pace was 7:55 min per mile!! I knew this was way too fast, so I slowed it down, but was still too fast. I figured I would pay for this later, and I did.
At the mile 9 marker, I waited for over 5 mins for Bonnie, I started to get worried that somehow I missed her in the crowd, but then she appeared.
We have done the 1/2 twice, so this was the first time we ran this part of the course.
I knew it was going to be a very long day, so I was taking it easy and slow. By the time we got to mile 14, I was starting to hurt a little.

At mile 15 I told Bonnie I felt dizzy and might need to walk. I was feeling the first part of a bonk!! I had walked through every water station and was hydrated properly, I had eaten a gell at every hour, but it was not enough. about 5 mins later, a woman had a cup full of peeled orange slices!!! I took a few, thanked her (damn near kissed her!) and went on. about 1/2 mile late there were more people with bananas. This totally saved my run!! For the next 10 miles, there were lots of folks with all kinds of food for us. I had pretzels, gummy bears, candy, cookies. I would not have made it without this food.

At mile 18.5, my friend Scott was there cleaning up, he looked very tired.

At mile 22, the Cliff station was there and my friend Rob was a volunteer. It was good to see him, we walked with him for about 45 sec till we reached the portacan. I had the most disgusting energy food combo ever. Black cherry Cliff blocks and a Apple Pie Cliff gell. NEVER DO THIS!!! Trust me!

We stopped at the Houston Racing Triathlon Club hoopla tent for about 5 mins, chatted with all the folks there, ate Oreos and spiced gum drops. Then took off again.

I told Bonnie I needed to walk a few times, she was great about walking with me for 30 sec to a min a few times. I needed it mentally.

The last 5k was very tough. I just wanted to be finished.

Tammy was at the finish line cheering us on, THANKS TAMMY!!!!

Bonnie and I held hands and raised them at the finish line! I then stopped her under the banner and kissed her for a very long time. A few tears fell from my eyes, but quickly mixed with the sweat!

We were done! Our first marathon completed!!!

There is nothing I would do differently, this was my first marathon.

No warm down.
We went directly to the food court, ate the crappy food, sat at a table and talked about the run with the 6 others there.

We then got our bag, walked for about 15 mins back to the hotel, showered and left.




I went out slow, it was my first marathon.
We thought we would finish in under 5 hours, and we were close.




Goal was 5 hours or less.
I started my Garmin under the start banner and stopped it under the finish banner. It showed our chip time of 5 hours 21 minutes.
Bonnie did the same thing, but stopped hers at all the stops, hers showed 4 hours 57 minutes. So we had less than 5 hours of run time!!!

We went to Celeste's home for the post party, but most everyone was gone already. Thanks to Celeste for still letting us come over and for feeding us and thanks to Lisa for sticking around!!