holy smokes. i can’t believe the marathon is OVER! in all honesty, i wasn’t completely sure i’d be able to finish. it was a tough time from the first mile to the last and i hit a mental and physical wall halfway through, but somehow (thanks, jesse!) i was able to push on and complete 26.2 miles. i can’t believe it. i’m so happy to be done.
to start off, there were a few things that went great on race day:
1. the weather. it started out chilly, so i had my jacket on, but by mile 3 i had tied it around my waist and was ready to hand it off to jesse at the 10k mark. it was a gorgeous, clear, sunny, warm day – - nothing like the windy, cloudy, cold afternoon that would come later. i was extremely thankful for the weather – sometimes that makes all the difference in the world.
2. i ate enough on the route. last marathon, i felt like i didn’t get enough fuel, but this time around i was constantly eating GU, jelly beans, and drinking water and gatorade. spectators along the route also gave us M&Ms, oranges and bananas, which i was more than happy to eat…
3. jesse (and eventually our friend toews) followed me along the whole route and gave me the support i needed when i needed it most. also my friends caitlin, emily and joel saw me along the last few miles and that really made me push it to the finish line. the spectators and volunteers were awesome and there were so many of them, it was really encouraging.
4. i had the best playlist for the last 5 miles. many of you know that i only listen to the white stripes on my long runs, but i knew that if i were going to go past the 4 hour mark (which i did) i might need a little more variety in my tunes. so at the back end of 5 white stripes albums, i listened to:
dead weather: cut like a bu ffalo, treat me like your mother
dr. dog: hang on, army of ancients
k’naan: wavin’ flag, take a minute
jay-z: we run this town, empire state of mind
kanye west: amazing
ra ra riot: dying is fine, oh la
repeat k’naan until finish line 
now onto the things that sucked
1. my knee. i felt it from mile 1 until the end. it didn’t start being painful until mile 13, after the hill section (which wasn’t nearly as long as i thought it was going to be…it still sucked, but i guess it could have been a lot worse). because the course was so crowded for the first half (what with 15,000 runners and all), i was doing a lot of side stepping to get around people…plus i was probably running too fast for my own good…by the time i got to jesse at mile 14, i thought i wasn’t going to make it. i stopped for a second and my knee just tightened up and wouldn’t let me get going again. i laid down, cried, stretched, and jesse just kept telling me to push on, it would get better. i popped a few more ibuprofen and started back on track. i walked for a few minutes and then pushed through the pain when i started running again – it took about 10 minutes for it to move from a sharp pain to the dull pain it had been for the previous 14 miles, and i decided never to stop again…although i slowed from a9 minute pace to a 12 minute pace, i was pushing through and had committed (re-committed) to finishing again.
2. my unrealistic expectations. i had wanted to finish the race in under 4 hours. which could have been realistic if i hadn’t hurt my knee and had been able to keep training for the last month. because of my injury, i wasn’t able to run parts of the course like i had planned to do in the last month, keep up with my speed work, and get out on the asphault for some shorter distance, similar terrain runs. i didn’t quite come to the realization that i wasn’t going to make my goal time until halfway through the race…it was tough to admit to myself that i wasn’t going to do as well as i could have but once i realized it wasn’t “my fault” and i could still do my best and finish, i had the attitude i needed to push through to the end.
needless to say, i have learned alot from this experience and will definitely do things differently for my next marathon (like, not get injured…) i’m definitely going to do this again, but i think for the next year or two i’m going to focus on shorter distances. i would love to speed up my 5k and 10k and i think the half-marathon is a perfect, longer distance for me that i could potentially excel at. i’m excited to put the speed at the forefront of my routine and move the endurance, long distances to the back burner.
i still can’t believe this whole thing is over. it has definitely been a tough journey, especially this past month and i’m relieved to be done and ready to move on with my life.
