Chelan Marathon - September 2013

After months of training...already for my first marathon (26.2 miles!!).

Starting out!  My goal was under 4 hours, to run the whole thing, and mostly just survive!

It was raining the whole time, from a light drizzle, to a heavy rain.  At times my shoes felt quite heavy from the water.  I felt really strong until mile 12, but kept pushing forward.  This is just before mile 18, when the biggest uphill of the race came, I slowed down, and never got back up to pace.

I spent the last 8 miles concentrating on just running, encouraging other runners, both those passing me and those I passed, and not stopping no matter how much it hurt or how slow the running was.  This is right before the finish.

As I came in I saw the race clock ticking away, already past the 4 hour mark, but just barely!  My official time was 4:00:52 (9:11 min/miles).  I was so happy, even if I did miss my goal by 52 seconds.  Close enough for a race of that distance!

I was so happy to be done, and so amazed at the accomplishment.  The marathon is the real deal.  I have an immense respect for this distance, anyone who runs it, and especially those who can run it quickly.  It's like a dream to me now.  I still don't know how I ran for 4 hours and 26.2 miles.  Crazy!!  The greatest part about this picture is after I sat down at the finish line and ate a post-race snack I couldn't get up again.  My legs weren't sore.  They were dead!  It was like I had no muscles at all.  My body kind of went into recovery instantly after I stopped running.  I'm amazed at the power of the mind over the body, because my body made it very clear to me when I stopped that it had nothing left.  Yay Marathons!

In other racing news Ryan has done a few races since this one, but I didn't get any pictures.

In October he ran the CFC 5K coming in at 18:38, 3rd place overall, and 1st in his age group.

Yesterday he ran his 1st half-marathon In Unity We Run coming in at 1:35:36, and 6th place overall.

At the end of this month I'll be running my 2nd half-marathon and Ryan's shooting for another marathon the end of December, although it's super unorganized and they don't know if it's actually going to happen.  We've become crazy runners lately, but we LOVE it!  I especially love that it's something that we're doing together, not physically, but in so many other ways.

This is my treadmill.  It's been my saving grace in providing a place that I can get a good run while still being around for my children.  I might be crazy, but I love this thing.  Rightfully it's earned these 13.1 and 26.2 stickers.  If you look at the screen on the treadmill the odometer is showing.  Over the past 5 years I've beat this thing up quick up bit.  This week I'll pass 1,600 miles.