marathon mwood

well, i can officially mark one of the items off of my imaginary bucket list.
i am a marathoner.

 

i ran 26.2 miles. it's still settling in, two days later. what once was just a silly thought has now come to fruition and a reality in my life. what an accomplishment! i'm pretty darn proud of myself.

let me just be candid. training for a marathon sucks. it's taken up sooooo much time & energy. i bascially surrendered my life - every thought, every meal, every drink, every muscle, every spare moment to my goal. 

my goal?
time goal? nope.

 finish - yes. finish vertically with all philanges and extremities still attached. ha!

i got to sneak out of work a little early on friday so i could make it to the expo and get checked in to the hotel and have some time to just hang.  well, good thing that i got there early because i realized that i had
forgotten my stupid sports bra. what? who does that? i mean, that's like one of THE most important items that a female runner should remember. i had to hit up the oak court mall, as it was the closest to the hotel, and just
hope and pray that the bra i got wouldn't give me a disease b/c it hadn't been washed or completely chafe me beyond belief!

i hit up the expo before going to the hotel and ran into a sorority sister of mine that was running her first 1/2! yay, mel! she kicked butt and it was so good to see her! 

 the expo - meh. it left a lot to be desired and
they didn't have any free goodies. boo.

i picked up jdoss' race stuff since she, unfortunatly, couldn't come. let me just say - when you are used to a running partner and then that partner has to take a break due to injury -  it's almost like you're injured. it took me a while to suck it up and not quit training because i missed her by my side. but, i decided to go ahead and run and wear her race number under mine so she was there in spirit.

Dad, Stacy, Meg & JWood were so awesome all weekend. they were so supportive and endured all of the running day madness, including the crowd! they were there at the start to see me off and at the finish to celebrate with me. my favorite sentiment from this morning was from my Dad, whom has always pushed me to never quit and to always  try my best. i could tell he was a little nervous about the daunting task that was ahead of me and worried about me. he said, "kick butt and do your best, but be smart." :)

as time drew near to start, i met up with my new little running group that i got to know over the past few weeks. we stretched, talked about how nervous we were, and hit the ground running. God was looking out for me because as soon as jdoss was sidelined, sarah joined fleet feet's program and she is a gem. i couldn't have made it without these people around me, especially sarah.

 

sooooooo - the race.

 

i felt really strong for the 1st 1/2. hit up the Gu at mile 8 and then the halfers split off from us at around mile 12. um, it was tempting to just sail on through and call it a day. after we continued on and the halfers
turned off, it was desolate. ha! we were committed and the crowd wasn't. there wasn't neeear as much crowd support for the marathon. heck - we were there for HOURS longer. i guess i understand. somewhere around mile 14 - the front of my shin began to twinge and the tops of my feet got a little sore. then - around mile 15 - i felt like i was going to blow chunks and revisit friday night's subway. wha??? i haven't ever felt like that before. so - here i am running with 10 miles to go...my legs are falling apart and i feel like death. power. through. i'm sure it was just nerves and my mind playing tricks on me. i began to feel a little better around mile 20. i called my sis from my running friend sarah's phone to let them know that i was still alive and had about an hour left. she gave me the biggest pep talk and it was exactly what i needed to power on through. heck - i'd made it 20 miles.... i just had to gut out the last 6.

funny thing - i thought that maybe i had depleted of salt, which i probably had, and a lady had a HUGE bag of pretzels. SCORE! i snagged me 2 and chomped down to hopefully revive myself only to find that i now had chomped up pretzel in my mouth that i could not swallow. d'oh. it took a good 1/2 mile to get that one bite down. ha! i finally made it to a water stop and was able to eat the rest and wash it dwon. hilarious.

the last 4 miles were a complete blur. we were running with the 4:45 pacer and she was very motivating. she cheered and yelled and pushed our group right to the finish. i had a secret goal of finishing under 4:58 mintues,
because that's the latest biggest loser's time in boston. ha! so, i felt very happy about 4:45 finish :) the last .5 mile was so surreal. my new friend, sarah, and i yelled and pushed each other - 

OMG! WE'RE DOING IT.
WE'VE DONE IT!!! C'MON - NOT MUCH LONGERRRRR!!!! i called myself picking up the pace as i ran into the red bird stadium - i probably went from a shuffle to a slow jog, but it felt like i was hussain bolt in the olympics. just get me across that finish!

don't i look like an olympic sprinter?? ha!

Busted. I may or may not have shed a few tears.

 

even though everything me hurt - i felt amazing. i cannot describe the euphoria. awesome.

the rest of the weekend was great - i hit up an ice bath, ate nearly an entire pizza - don't judge, i burned 3,000 calories - and napped and then hit up downtown memphis to celebrate! i brought a party dress to celebrate marathon success and my birthday! don't kid yourself either, i wore my medal for that evening and several days later. ha! we had a blast!

thanks to all of my friends and family who endured this rediculous training with me. it went a little something like this.....  mwood - want to go here? nope. gotta run. mwood - want to go there? nope. gotta run. it was a group effort and i couldn't be more appreciative. and a special thanks to these two - they were amazing throughout this process. i'm sure they're as excited as i am that this task is complete!

 so, 2010 has been a good year and i am so greatful to have made it through healthy. 

4 1/2 marathons and 1 full marathon in 1 year - i'll call it a good year.

now - it's time for a rest. :)