Now that it has been almost four weeks, I can say that running a marathon was really fun and I will probably do it again. The last few months of training, when I was running 16 to 20 miles every other Saturday, I thought, "why I'm I doing this. What weirdo runs 16 miles for fun." I still don't have an answer, but I can say it was worth it. I still feel so good about the accomplishment.
I met an amazing person during the race. (We are basically best friends now that we have spent more then four hours talking to each other).
We encouraged each other the whole way. We both knew we were each-others answers to our prayers. Although I had trained pretty much by myself, the Lord finds me awesome people to run my races with.
Yes, I died. My tight tibial band made my hips start to burn around mile 17. By 22, the miles seemed to get longer. The hardest was the last two. They were the only miles I could not talk to my new friend Naomi. It felt like the longest stretch to me. I listen to some music from an ipod Jamie let me borrow, that she was borrowing from a friend. I have no idea who I was listening to, nonetheless, it helped. I finished in 4 hours and 46 minutes.
I felt sick for the first hour after the race when I tried to eat. During the race I had water, electrolyte water and hammer gel (pasty stuff that you slowing eat. I worked on two the whole race.) so I just walked around and drank lots of water. My whole pit crew was pretty awesome. I iced for three hours and had to pee every 30 minutes, but I recovered well.
Thank you to my cousin, Loni. It was her crazy idea. She always gets me to do the funnest thinks in life. Thanks to my husband who took care of our children while I ran for insane amounts of time. Thank you Mom and Dad. I'm so glad you two were there. Believe it or not, I ran faster when I saw my mom standing on the side of the street before the finish line. Thank you Dad and David for talking to me while I was running my long runs. That helped so much. Jamie filled me up with so much water. Thank you for sharing the air mattress. Really.
Ultimately, during training and the marathon, my Heavenly Father blessed me. Through prayer, He blessed me. I relayed on Him during the most difficult times of the whole experience. I am nothing without my Heavenly Father.
