Brian, Jamie and me. Well, last Sunday I completed my first marathon and I think I am hooked now. I loved the atmosphere of all the runners and supporters along the way. There were about 35-40 bands along the course which was pretty cool. Everytime you passed one you got a rush of energy. One guy that I remember in particular was this man on a bike with a keyboard playing the Rocky theme song. It sure lifted my spirits because he was at about mile 17 or so.
The day was perfect! We couldn't have asked for better weather. I was a little worried because the forecast said the high would be in the 80s, but due to the 8 o'clock start, it never got too hot. Just towards the very end the sun started to come out and heat things up a bit.
I started out with the 3:10 pace group and hung with them for a mile or two. I wanted to stay with them since this distance was new to me, but I felt really good. The first mile was a blur. I missed the split because I was suprised we had already gone a mile. The rest of the miles up to mile 13 were kind of like this too (not quite as fast). I had decided to split away from the pace group at around the 2 mile mark because I felt so good. I ran with this one kid for miles 2-5 until he had to use the restroom. This was his second marathon and he said he wanted to run it under 3 hrs. I ended up seeing him at the finish, but I was in too much of a daze and forgot to ask him what his time was. My mile splits from 2 to about 16 ranged from 6:50-7:05. I was a little worried about going too fast so I never went any faster than 6:50 even though I felt really good.
At mile 17, all I was thinking about was reaching mile 20. The marathon got really tough between miles 20-26. Towards the end with two miles to go, I saw I needed to run 18 minutes in order to qualify for Boston. This was a little scary since I ran the previous mile in 9 minutes. My legs felt really heavy and hard to move. I was hoping that they would stay like that and not seriously cramp up to where I would have to stop. I told myself that I would not go all this way and then miss qualifying by a few seconds. So I dug in and was thrilled when I turned the corner for the straight-away finish. I saw my dad standing at the turn encouraging me on. I finished in 3:09:32.
Running towards the finish!
After finishing, I quickly downed three cups of gatorade and then sat on a table eating a Panera's cinnamon bagel. I had never been so happy to be done running! I finally got up and went further along the "food area". Starbucks had a stand there and they were giving out some kind of hot pumpkin drink. Suprisingly this sounded really good. I drank three shot size glasses of it. My brother thought I was crazy after I told him this.
This was an awesome experience that I will never forget! Congrats to my sister for qualifying for Boston and my brother for breaking 4 hrs. Even though I am still pretty sore, I am eager to run Boston in April!
Who knows, maybe I'll do YUTC next year!
