The details
I'll go ahead and post them for you...thanks for this
I’m not quite sure how I feel about this marathon experience yet. I may waffle back and forth a bit the next week or so…but here goes…
We arrived in Phoenix at 8pm Friday night. I couldn’t believe the weather! We let the kids play on the slide at the motel for a while in just our long sleeve shirts…wow! Saturday we hit the expo. I was so excited! All the runners and booths and just fun! We drove the course, and found meeting spots all the while with the A/C running. It was quite warm. We had to stop at Kmart to pick up some short sleeve shirts.
The traffic was horrible going to the start. Dh got me as close as he could and I hopped out to walk the last block or two. The weather was perfect. I wore shorts, a tee, and a jacket. I took the jacket off before the race started 30 min. late at 8:15am.
A lot of the race is a blur. The first few miles flew by. By mile 8 my legs were hurting like they do when running up a slight incline. Hmmm, the course is supposed to be mostly flat. My family met me at mile 9. I refilled my Gatorade and handed off my jacket. They met me again right after the halfway point. I refilled and restocked gel and Kleenex. Legs were really hurting now and I knew I still had to it all again! I was wishing I just had to do a half marathon.
I kept up my 5/1 run/walk until about mile 17. I decided to walk through a cycle. Then I kept walking. We started up a long hill about here. The TV news made it seem small. It was not small. Mile 18 I took a gel, but couldn’t get it all down. I was starting to feel nauseous. Mile 19 I called dh “I don’t feel good!” I whined. He asked if I would like him to walk with me. I said yes, but knew that I would be begging him to let me drop out. He said he’d meet me right after mile 20. So I kept on walking. Slowly.
Mile 20, where is he? I found a curb, sat down, and cried. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna puke. I was hot and took off my cap. That felt a little better. Two people came over and checked on me. I told them I was fine. I got back up and walked. Every half mile I sat down and repeated the same thing with less crying. I would watch the people going by and they were quite inspiring. Finally dh called and apparently we missed each other. He said he’d see me at the finish. I had gone to mile 22 just hoping to see him. I sat down again.
I don’t remember exactly how my angel found me. I remember it was right after mile 22. I think he talked to me for a minute and said, “Catch up to me.” I thought, “Yeah right.” His legs were cramping up pretty badly. Mile 22.5 he was off to the side stretching and I was ready to sit down again. We walked together and talked. He is Mike from Austin, TX and without him I would not have finished. He kept my mind off my nausea for 4 miles. He had to pee a lot so I got to sit down now and then. He kept telling me to go on, but I needed him!
It got very hot and the last 4 miles took a long time to cover. We jogged into finish and I managed a huge smile! I hugged my angel and took off. I could not wait to sit down. My finishing time was 6:42:12. Over an hour later than what I had planned for. More than 2.5 hours longer than my longest training run. I am happy I finished, but wish I would have had a better experience.
I enjoyed cheering those on that finished after me. I got teary eyed again cause I knew how hard they had worked!
I know I said this would be my first and last marathon. I swore it would be my last during the last 3rd of the race. Now, I’m not quite so sure.
THE BEGINNING
Andrea
P.S. Just a little side note...dh ended up running 2-3 miles himself looking for me when we missed each other. He was as sore as me the next day!
