From all accounts, the Baltimore Marathon was a huge success. I had these huge knots in my stomach with worry about something going wrong (injuries, sickness, weather, etc.) and just the idea of running 26.2 miles was rather daunting. I had three main goals going into this race...
1. To run a consistent pace throughout,
2. To finish strong
3. To enjoy myself.
I knew that I had put in the time and training and was just hoping that everything would work out right when it came to race day.
We met up with my two sisters and their families on Friday afternoon and picked up our race packets before carbo-loading in Little Italy that night. Fortunately the kids slept well that night in the hotel and I slept about as well as could be expected!
The race began the next morning at 8 a.m. and I was thrilled with my final results. I finished with a time of 4:38 (my first marathon took me well over 5 hours) and that was even with rain, wind and some nasty hills to contend with from miles 16-20. Most importantly though, I had a much more enjoyable experience overall. I gave"high-fives", smiled, laughed, pumped fists and waved when given extra hollers from the crowd and really just tried to take the whole experience in. It's not everyday that you have thousands of people cheering you on in accomplishing something so incredibly difficult. And I was able to kick it into high gear in the final home stretch, passing about 8-10 people along the way.
Don't these marathoners look like they're having a grand old time?!?!?
My sister Lara sustained a pretty severe hamstring injury just a few weeks ago which prevented her from running the full marathon. She did her own modified "marathon" that morning though, doing 20 miles on the stationary bike at the gym and then joining in on the last 6.2 miles of the marathon. Although she was disappointed with not being able to run the entire distance, I was so proud that she would even attempt to do what she did. Most people would have just bagged the whole thing!!
Me nearing the finish line...
The end is in sight...
My cheering section right about mile 9...
Don't let all my positive talk and smiles fool you though. This race was TOUGH!!! There were many times I would just repeat again and again to myself, "Just keep moving..." I had a really difficult time at Mile 12. It was kind of a boring part of the course, I had no music to entertain or distract me, my legs were starting to burn and I wasn't even to the halfway point. Talk about discouraging!! I started to let some of these negative thoughts in which of course dragged me down even further. Finally a clear thought came into my mind that told me very distinctly..."Yeah, this is tough. It's supposed to be tough. You knew it would be tough. So stop thinking about it being so hard and just do it!!" I realized at that point that I had two choices, I could wallow in the agony that I was experiencing at that moment, or I could acknowledge that it was tough and keep moving through it. Fortunately I chose the latter and ended up accomplishing something great. (Kind of like life, don't you think?)
Was running this marathon hard? OH YEAH.
Was it painful? VERY MUCH SO.
Did I ever want to quit? PROBABLY MORE THAN A FEW TIMES
Did I ever wonder "what in the world am I doing out here?" OF COURSE
But was it great... thrilling... exciting... wonderful... challenging... momentous... something I will remember and be proud of for the rest of my life? MOST DEFINITELY
So the question remains...will I do it again?
YOU BET!! CALL ME CRAZY, BUT I'M TOTALLY HOOKED!!
