Well I did it!  I finished my first Marathon. I finished exactly where I wanted to finish too.  My goal was to finish around 4:45.

Here is the breakdown.

10K at 1:04:49, Pace 10:26.

Half Marathon Split at 2:19:37.   Pace 10:39

Finish at 4:46:20.   Pace 10:42

Don’t you love how my pace increased?    Although, I will tell you, I went out and throughout the course tried to maintain a steady pace between 10 and 11 which my garmin reflects.  I’ll be brutally honest.   It was hard! It was long!   And they are liar, liar pants on fire that it is a flat course.   Yes, it starts off nice and flat, and there are some lovely hills to go down.   The problem is all the hills to go up are on the end.   They should flip the course and end with the flat part, but that’s just my opinion.

I’ll also be even more honest.   Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but I walked a little at the end.   I kept telling myself that my legs were not tired and would carry me through, but I still walked.   I think I did that because I knew that I was going to be in my time zone.   I also did it because, damn, my legs were jello!

Now, there is a lot to talk about with this race, but today I want to talk about the cheering fans.

I went down with a bunch of great moms from my local MRTT group.   Most of us went by ourselves without any family.  I, actually, have never had any family come to my races.   It really never bothered me.   I still get a kick out of all the cheering fans.   I like to think that people who line up to cheer along a race cheer for us all and they really do.    You’ve got the people reading your name on your bib, calling out your name and encouraging you all the way.   It’s amazing and believe me there will be a whole post on these fans!

Yesterday though, something extraordinary happened.  I was reaching a critical part of the race.   It was the part where the people running the half marathon get to go to the right and those of us continuing know we have another 13 to go.  It’s very disheartening and really a kick in the pants.   I was having a dialogue with myself at the time to tell myself to keep going as the thought had popped into my mind to go to the right.   Then I heard my name being called and I saw them.    My sister who lives in California, my Mother who was screaming the loudest, and a family friend.   They had signs and were cheering for me.   How could I not finish now?    It actually became my manta!

“Your if your sister can fly from California, you can finish this!  They came to see you finish”

 

This is the thrill of finishing with a mother who can’t hold her excitement and brought roses too

There is a video of it that I posted on my FB page.  You can see me trudging along, the surprise on my face, the smile that brightens it up, and the best part is the excitement my mother had.   What you don’t see is how it lifted my spirits and really did help me to finish.   I really don’t know if I could have done it without them!

To finish my first marathon was an amazing experience, but to finish with family there took it to the next level.