Marathon (this is a little over due sorry)

Yay!! I did it I ran the (okay so there was a lot walking toward the end) Marathon.

Here's me before the race with Shelly eating my last minute banana for the race.

Here is all the guys who ran. Keith and his brother ran the Half-Marathon(13.1 miles) Mr. Baker and I ran the Marathon (26.2 miles)

Here's us waiting and still trying to figure out if we are in the right spot.

Shelly hollered at me to turn for a picture right about when the guy said GO!!! this is the result.

So we were off, I felt pretty good. We made a mistake and ran a little too fast early on, but we held out for about six miles. Here Shelly can see me coming.

At the first stop Shelly had some sport jelly beans and Gatorade. It was good. This is right about when we got to her.

From here I didn't see Shelly for another 10 miles, which was a little too long for me to go with out food. I could have easily made it to 16 miles and stopped and been fine but at 16 miles I was out of food and energy, I did get a few bites of a snickers bar along the way. I only grabbed a few pieces because i didn't want to seem like a greedy pig. Mr. Baker was not with me at the time he had to stop for the bathroom and was going to catch up. Once he caught up he told me he grabbed handfuls and had been eating them catching up to me. Guess I should have played the pig...

During this time we were coming up to the course where it would double back and all the really good runners were heading back to the finish line. What I thought was awesome was they all cheered for me as went back. They were heading back in on about mile 20 or so and I was heading in after about 12 miles or so. Running is such a cool sport because everyone cheers for everyone. I was so encouraged by them to keep on because now I felt that if I didn't finish I'd let them all down as well.

Here is us at about mile 16, I was beat very tired and had no energy.


Once I saw Shelly I was much more energized (mostly cause I didn't want her to catch me walking cause I was dying), but more than that because I love seeing her and she was really worried about me. She had my banana and a full throttle ready for me. I slowed a little and kept on going, Mr. Baker on the other hand stopped, gave the report on how we were doing and I think got a peanut butter sandwich??? He caught up with me later. I wasn't going to have a full throttle, I was going to save it for like mile 20 or so, just in case. Boy was I wrong I needed it right then and it hit the spot I was able to keep going another 2 miles or so and then the worse part happened to me.

I pulled a muscle in my calf. We are not real sure what caused it. It could have been not enough stretching at the beginning, lack of water and salt for 6 miles on a day that was warming up, could have been too many hills (I didn't train real hard on hills). It hit me hard, it knotted and wouldn't go away. I was really thankful for Mr. Baker being there. He helped me stretch it out and showed me the proper ways of doing it. I later found out from him that he thought I wouldn't have made it after that. It was my first marathon and training hadn't gone the way I'd have liked it to. And now a leg cramp, I still had about 8 miles or so to go. I was determined to finish and kept going.

I ran into a couple who were trudging along and he gave me some salt pills and a Gatorade, it did help but it was already too late the damage was done. So for the next 8 miles or so I had to stop and stretch it out and knead the muscles loose to continue. It ruined my time, although I was already slipping behind before that happened but now it was really dragging.

Here we see two men running,(mile 22) one who feels great and is jumping around the other looks like they are about to collapse. I had 4.6 miles to go after this. I was also in the need of a bathroom (clean bathroom) Thankfully around the bend the Lord provided. More stretching and I was off.

Here we are at about mile 24. We had a little walking but the past mile and a half I ran without having to stop and stretch, things were looking up, but after about mile 20 you are pretty much running on mind alone. Your body will spend all of it's energy after this point, it becomes a mental battle. You eat and drink not because it does anything for you but because you think it does something for you. I got to see my biggest cheering section at this point. My dad was able to locate me along with the Pallers from our church with everyone else who had already ran. The kids had made signs and I was touched.

Due to some traffic problems Shelly didn't get to get the picture of me running across the finish line. But I did it. I got my medal and a congrats for finishing from some lady who worked there, then it hit me horrible pain was shooting up through my now worn out and severely cramping calf and my legs as well. I tried stretching but it wasn't doing much good. If I hadn't have been so happy finishing I probably would have fallen down crying in pain. Everyone was there at the end. It was a great time.

This is the shirt I got for finishing, it is a really nice running shirt I was surprised at the quality of the material.

After the race I truly learned why Friends Don't Let Friends Run Marathons. Although Keith wants to run one with me now... So I guess we aren't friends?

oh well, I look forward to exercising and burning off more fat in the future. Training and running this marathon has taught me a lot about what the human body can do and endure.

Again let me apologize for not posting sooner.

And thanks to all of those who supported me!!!