26.2 Miles.

After a 10k, half marathon, and only five months of training, I'm ecstatic to say that I successfully completed the Seattle Marathon today. That beautiful medal is all mine.

I wasn't sure if I was going to do a full marathon at first. There's so many other things going on in my life keeping me busy and I had built up my mileage too quickly for the 13.1 which caused problems with my achillies tendon in my left leg. But, I was half way there already. How could I stop at that? Besides, I've always wanted to win something-- a trophy, a medal. Acheive something challenging that was different than anything I've ever worked for before. Either way, after a couple weeks of a literal vacation from running with one of my best buddies, I felt good to go for some more running.

I remember several years ago when I was stretching in a pilaties class at the local fitness center. The instructor started asking one of the women there about her marathon and how impossible it seemed and how the pain was supposed to be very overwhelming. I think I felt just awe-inspired about the idea of overcoming pain like that to achieve something many people couldn't/wouldn't do. I never imagined myself actually doing it though.

Anyway, this morning it was so cold, but I lucked out. No rain all day and it warmed up to the high 30's and low 40's. You have no idea how thankful I am for this. My family also went with me to the race and they were so supportive. Them being there meant the world to me. My mom even paid for the hotel and food. I am so loved by the people in my life. I am constantly astonished by how blessed I am. The race was surreal. 3,000 marathoners and 10,000 half marathoners. I wonder where all these people come from. I haven't met very many people that c/would go the distance of a full marathon or even a half. When the gun went off for the start, I felt so choked up with happiness and nervousness and adrenaline and just amazement at everything. "I cant believe I made it this far! I can't believe it I'm going to do this!" The capabilities and strength of my own mind and body astound me.

During the first few miles, the time went by quickly-- actually the whole race went by pretty quickly. Chocolate carb gels are delicious, btw. I got to see the space needle, run down the floating bridge and let my mind sink into the surroundings as I joined everyone around me in "running mode". It was beautiful. I managed to keep a steady pace and finished really strong with a big smile on my face. At first I was a little worried at mile 8 because my right hamstring and hip joint started to hurt pretty bad and got progressively worse throughout the race. I watched one guy in front of me suddenly blow out his knee or something in his left leg. He could barely walk and was basically done for. It was kind of scary because my knees started hurting after I ran my 20 miler a while back and I know running injuries can just suddenly hit you without warning and ruin an entire race. Even so, I stopped every few miles to stretch it out for a bit, which really helped and I still managed a steady pace throughout, only walking when I got water from the aide stations (otherwise it would just splash all over the front of me). I think the thing that excited me most was that everyone was talking about the how horrible the hills were, but to me they were basically nothing. Thank you hill training! :)

I don't ever want to forget this experience and how it's shown me how strong (and amazing! ;D) I am. I want to remember the smiles on the faces of the people cheering me on, the hazed bay, the way my foggy breath puffed out in front of me in the crisp air, the energetic cheers of the runners at mile 5, the grunts and scruched up faces of myself and those running around me as we pushed through the pain of mile 24, the overwhelming euphoria of seeing signs of mile 25 and 26 plastered on the honey buckets, and the smiles and cheers as I hit the finish line.

And now as I let the delayed muscle soreness set in, I can dream up what I want to do next. No post-marathon blues for me! Life is good.