Made it To a Marathon

Well, more than a year after I first set out to run a marathon, I have finally, officially done it. 17 months, probably a thousand miles, one stress fracture, and countless peanut butter M&Ms later I can proudly say it: I AM A MARATHONER.

What a great feeling. What a great Mothers' Day. I got to spend it in the glorious Colorado mountains, in perfect weather, doing just what I love: running. And not just running, but running my first marathon! I have a full race report coming in the near future, but for now I will spare you the suspense and give you the quick-and-dirty version...

Miles 1-18 = glorious, fabulous, sexay mountain downhills, I rocked it
Miles 19=25 = cow and horse manure smell, quads started whining at mile 22
Mile 25-26.2 = ohmygod how good does chocolate milk sound right now?!

Final chip time: 4:35:49. Of course, as any marathoner knows, the time doesn't always tell the whole story. My secret [achievable] goal was to come in at 4:30--and basically, I did that. Had I not made a porta-potty stop, I would have been about a minute off of that. And had I walked less in miles 22-26.2, I would have smashed my goal and come in about 4:18. But the best part of the story is that I ran strong, felt great, and will definitely be doing more marathons in the future (ok, yes, so I am already registered for Denver in October, but now I am also considering a July or August showing, just to keep things fun...I never had the moment of "why in the hell did I ever think this was a good idea?!")

I really had a great, strong race and feel completely satisfied with my finish. And my favorite line by a runner was the Marathon Maniac at about mile 9 who, in chatting, mentioned that he had run 116 marathons. A couple of other first-timers with the little group running with me were incredoulous at that--they said, "my God, you are basically in marathon training 100% of the time!" and his response, "well, the really great thing about running a marathon every couple of weeks is that you never have to do that long boring training run on the weekends!" That got a good laugh out of all of us.

The grand finale to my Mothers' Day was that after we all got back home, we were on our way to walk to the park for a little while and Shortie2 flipped off the front of his little riding toy car, busted his chin wide open, and ended up at the urgent care with 6 stitches. Thank God I had a wonderfully-moisture-wicking tech shirt on in order to soak up all the dripping blood. Ah, Motherhood, indeed.