This post has been waiting a week or so for me to come back and add pictures. Since that never happened, here it is...
Sunday was the day for marathon #5. In the last couple weeks and days leading into it, I was very nervous. But in the end, it turned out great!
Warning, this is a long post you may not want to read. But, its the only want I'll remember all this stuff.
Why nervous? On my last long training run I had started having some knee/IT band issues. I decided that was a good reason to rest up plus I did a lot more stretching and exercises with a foam roller plus bought a knee band. Somewhere around mile 1 I realized that I had forgotten the knee band. Thankfully, that was the last I thought about it for the day because I had no issues at all. This was such a relief because before the race I had just decided that this would just have to be a very painful race. I was so thankful that was not the case.
The other reason I was nervous was the weather. On Saturday they were predicting rain and thunderstorms for Sunday morning. They were even talking about shortening the course or having to cancel it if there was lightening. I really had no clue what to do to prepare for this or how to dress. I was already planning to run the Cowtown at the end of February for a "make up marathon". On Sunday morning I even tried on 3 different shirts because I was so unsure of what the weather would bring. Thankfully, all it did was rain. The rain was annoying and brought some
serious blisters, but we got to run the whole race so I was happy.
I had 5 of the best cheerleaders on the course supporting me. Matthew and Anita along with Mallory, Nathan, and Abby braved the rain to come watch me! I got to see them around mile 7 and again just before the finish line. They just missed me several times other times. Looking back, I think that was a good thing. There were a few times that if I had seen them I would have been very tempted to stop for a minute.
I was able to run 99% of the race with my friend Heather. We ran most of our training runs together so that was great. We got separated a couple of times, but I crossed the finish line just a few seconds after her so we could high five. It was great haveing a friend along the whole way. We even managed to get our picture on the Chronicle's website.
As always there were lots of great signs along the way. The best were for a runner named Geoff. I don't know who he is, but he has some great friends. They had posted a sign near every mile marker with his picture and a quite. Some of the best quotes: "When Chuck Norris hits the wall, it falls down" & "Who needs toenails anyways?" I saw a "
bazinga" one too that made me laugh.
Back to the rain...on my drive down that morning I heard the Todd Agnew song Grace Like Rain. These lyrics stayed in my head all morning: "Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me / Hallelujah, and all my sins are washed away". As the rain was coming down for much of the race, I loved having that in my head so the rain could be a reminder of something so much bigger.
As for my time, it was awesome! I finished with 4:19. It was a major PR (personal record) for me so I was thrilled!
All in all it was a great day. I'm pretty much recovered except for my big toe which is throbbing as I type. Might need to get some help for that...
