26.2

Who knew  . . . I could run 26.2 miles?

Many of you did!  Thanks for all your well wishes and prayers.  I was so touched by the number of friends and family that called, emailed, texted and ran in solidarity this past week.  It was unexpected and a highlight of my marathon running experience.   Thank you to everyone!

Well I did it.  Technically I didn't run 26.2 miles but I did run most of it and walked a little here and there and towards the end I probably looked like a football lineman when they shuffle on and off the field but I did it.  I ran a marathon.  

Here is the play by play: 

(you know you just skimmed this post and saw way more words than pics, well I ran for over 4 hours so I am allowed to pontificate on my experience and the least you could do is stay with me for 3 minutes of reading unless you think you could run a marathon and take pictures at the same time.)

• Mile 1,2: Felt good, ready to run, glad to be running a little with Kirsten to get this adventure started.
  
• Mile 3, 4: Felt good, found a pace I felt good about but not too comfortable (no Keila I wasn't sleeping)
  
• Mile 5-9: Felt good, ran along the shore of Lake Washington and it was beautiful, saw a few friends on the side
  
• Mile 10, 11: Felt good, ran across the I-90 floating bridge and enjoyed the scenery of Bellevue, Mercer Island, and even Mt. Rainier (as the locals say "the mountain was out")
  
• Mile 12 - 15: Felt good, ran with a smile on my face, ran through the express tunnel into Seattle, found my dad on the side lines taking pictures and passed the 1/2 marathon mark where there was no turning back
  
• Mile 16-18: Felt okay, the scenery of the water front on one side and downtown skyline on the other was cool, I was running up hills a lot of the way but I was running strong, my legs were tightening up but for the most part everything felt good.
  
• Mile 19: Felt okay but loosing steam, luckily Rob and Cindi were planted in the middle of mile 19 right before the top of the hill and turn around and were there to cheer for me, I needed it.  After I saw them I plugged in my iPod to treat myself for coming so far and to motivate myself to keep going.  Gwen Stefani, Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, and a few others were what kept me moving.
  
• Mile 19-22: Felt okay but was ready to be done, I think I hit the wall around mile 21 (the wall is the place where you think you can't go any further and are ready to give up), but I took some more gu, a full cup of water, let myself walk for a minute or two and then forced myself to keep moving, even if it was at a lineman shuffle pace.
  
• Mile 23: Felt crappy, my body, heart and mind were arguing with themselves.  I stopped a few times to stretch a little but mostly so I could let my body, heart, and mind have a conference call about why we were doing this and how we were going to finish.  Finally my heart took over and told my mind what to do and my mind told my body what to do and once that was settled I could run again.
  
• Mile 24: I felt okay, I figured if I had run 23 miles already so why couldn't I just run a few more?
  
• Mile 25 - 26: Felt okay, who thought it was a good idea to chart the course with a hill at mile 25?  I would like to talk to that person because it was not okay but I made it and ran almost the entire hill.
  
• Mile .2: Felt good, Of course I felt good, I was almost done.  The crowds were awesome, I saw my Dad and Cindi and Rob, had enough steam to keep going at a strong pace but not enough to sprint in.  I crossed the finish line!
• Finish Line: After crossing the finish line it was a little anti-climatic, I wasn't sure what to expect but other than the big sign that said "finish line" I couldn't believe that I was done.  There were no fireworks, no major change in who I was as a person, just kind volunteers handing out medals and water bottles and funneling everyone over to have their picture taken.  I grabbed some post race food, more water, a space blanket and left to find my cheering squad waiting for me.
  

All in all I am glad I ran a marathon.  The training, the time management to work in training, the planning and thinking and learning about running, and the race (even when it was tough to keep going) was an awesome challenge in which I learned so much and am proud of myself for accomplishing  (yes there is a tear in my eye right now, this was a big deal.)

Well if you are ever looking for a running buddy left me know because I feel like I am now an official runner.  But don't call me for at least two week because I think my legs have been filled with lead and I need to recover.

Thanks for reading this entire post, pictures taken by my Dad will be posted soon.