Gotta start to finish

It's taken me a few days to get back into the swing of things back at home. Time has been spent catching up with my family and trying to get into the groove at work. Thus, my marathon update post is a bit delayed.

As most of my readers know by now, my journey to this marathon has been touch and go. Training started out in December and was going extremely well for the first two months before I was plagued with what felt like one injury that led to another, to another. You get the picture. I'm stubborn though. Didn't want to give it up easily. Even after telling Amanda on Friday that I wasn't 100% sure if I was going to run on Sunday, I still went to the expo on Saturday to pick up my race packet. I still found myself lining up with Jennifer that next morning. And what do you know? I found myself crossing the finish line almost 5 hours later. Was it exactly the experience I had envisioned back in December or January or even into February? Absolutely not. Was it a good experience and did I have a great time? You got that freakin' right!

First half of the marathon felt pretty good. I was keeping an easy and comfortable pace and crossed the half mark in 2:08. That was right around the time my shin issues started to flare up and a huge blister began to develop on the opposite foot. Think this was due to my heel cups that I've been wearing for PF, but since I haven't run much in the past 6 weeks, my feet were not prepared to go that far with them. I ended up walking more than running the 2nd half of the race, and also threw in a first aid pit stop just for good measure. The blister was quite unbearable, so I swung through the station for some band-aids and sat my happy rear down on the curb to take off my shoe and patch up my foot. Also popped a few ibuprofen to take off the edge. Running by that point was very forced, so I did the jog/walk march through to the finish line. Chatted up lots of other runners, laughed with many of them and took in the sights.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. There is just something about races that gives me that high. The energy of the crowd, being around so many others that all share something in common, hearing the spectators cheer us on. I love that feeling. And that is why I start and why I finish. It took some mental pep talking to get myself to this one. I debated about whether to just wait until I knew I could run a better race, so I wouldn't be disappointed in my performance. Then I would bounce to not caring about performance/time and just wanting to have fun and complete the run. The latter won out in the end, thank goodness! Not one ounce of disappointment, just complete satisfaction at getting it done.

As far as the marathon goes, I thought it was very well put on. Plenty of hydration stations, good crowd support (despite the chillier weather), nice scenic course (albeit hilly!). There are a couple of things they could work on, the zig-zag finish line was a little weird and the last 2 miles could be changed up a bit. But, I thought Atlanta did a pretty good job. Oh, and coming from CO, I thought the weather was pretty good running weather. Could have done without the wind, but the temps were great and luckily, no rain during the race.

Big cheers to Marsh, Amanda and Jennifer. Amanda had an amazing postpartum debut in the half. Just a short 4 months after welcoming Baby Hadley into the world, she blazed to the finish in 1:50. Marsh was right there with her, supporting her all the way - what a guy! Jennifer never ceases to amaze and inspire me. I could tell when we met up with them on Saturday at the expo that she just wasn't feeling great, but did that stop her from running a PR? No way. One of these days, when I grow up, I want to run just like her. She has run a dozen marathons - wow! Makes my two look mild but never fear, I'm already scouting out the next. I'm so proud of my friends.

On top of the racing weekend, I got to spend some time with my brother, niece and nephew, as well as some of my high school buddies. Got in some good shopping, which really means it was the first time in a long time that I actually browsed a store without a little one tugging at my leg asking when we were going to be done. I finished one book and got halfway through the next. Which, by the way, anyone who is a Piccoult fan like me, gotta get on her next one. It sucks you right in.