Sunday, December 14, 2008

And this marathon is dedicated to...

my husband, Casey. Without his support and encouragement, I wouldn't have finished. The first part of the race was just fine, but around mile 12, I started getting stabbing stomach pains (Gatorade Endurance is bad juju.) and had to walk/run a lot of that mile. We kept going, despite strong winds and fatigue, but I was very discouraged a couple times, especially when the 4:15 marathon group passed us. As silly as it was, while running a marathon, I started crying, but Casey encouraged me and made me feel better. He was awesome like that. By the last 5 miles, we were both so tired, that simply finishing was all we wanted to do, and we did. We actually finished really strong, even if it wasn't at the time we'd planned and trained for, 4 hours, but rather at 4:24. But we've done our first marathon, we survived it. And the next will be better. And no more Gatorade Endurance.

We also had lots of support and encouragement from folks on the race course, including our friends, Michael and Darrah and Robin too. That was fun. Dad spotted us the last mile or so and ran ahead so we could see him at the finish. It was good for him to see us finish.

7 comments:

Criss L. Cox said...

Congratulations!!! To both of you!!! :)

Christy said...

V -
I am so proud of you! I was thinking about you a lot this morning. Way to go for finishing your first marathon! What a great accomplishment. Sorry we didn't get to personally root you on - but i was from a distance! Be proud and enjoy a relaxing week!

Unknown said...

Congrats! You rock! :)

Charlton said...

Congratulations! I'm not a runner by any means, so I can't imagine running 26.2 miles. See you soon!

Jen Haney said...

Yay! You finished! That is amazing! The winds yesterday were so rough- I can imagine running against them would make things rather difficult. What an accomplishment! Congrats to you both!

Anonymous said...

I was kinda proud until I read about the crying part. Kidding...CONGRATULATIONS! That's an awesome accomplishment.

Marci said...

4:24 is amazing, we are so proud of you!