October 31, 2010: MCM pics

Colin and I post-race, hooray for his FIRST marathon!

My Thoughts/Opinion: I know it has been weeks since the marathon, but I am just now getting a chance to post some pics after being out of town for awhile. My apologies for such a late race story on this one, seems like it was ages ago now! Suffice it to say I spent the first 7 miles ticked off at how crowded it was and frustrated that I couldn't just settle into a pace! On the other hand, it was a beautiful sunny day and the weather was perfect to me. I found the course very pretty and actually really liked running the hills, it was a nice change of terrain. But there were several parts that got even more crowded, I felt, because of the way they routed us. The "bridge" was seemingly un-ending and I was dying of thirst at that point, not my favorite part of the race! I've done other large city marathons that I thought handled the crowd of participants a bit better. I've never had to come to a dead stop when crossing the finish line. And I've never had to stand and wait in line for a medal. Usually it's all one smooth flowing motion, finishers just walk through and all of those things are taken care of with no stopping. At any rate, it's all in the past at this point and I'm happy to have been able to reach the finish line. Of course I did way too much weaving and my Garmin read 26.75 miles when I finished! My friend Steph cut every corner as tightly as she could and ended up with precisely 26.2, so lesson learned for me! No weaving!

Me with my girlfriends from Rochester, Steph and Wendy. :)

SIGNS: It seems like there is rarely a shortage of signs to read along the course of an endurance race. There were several shirts listing family members who were veterans which were moving to read. There were other more comical ones, like the back of one shirt that read "Dear God, please let there be someone behind me to read this!" And my favorite sideline sign at around 24 miles read "Embrace the Suck!" Oh yeah, that is most definitely the "sucky" time of the race! It made me laugh and reflect on how I should embrace it because is was near the END!

left to right: My Mom's siblings Uncle Mike, Aunt Lisa, Austin (Mike's son-in-law), me, Colin. We were all a little chilly at this point!

THE HILL: All through the later miles in the race I was prepping myself mentally for the infamous hill at mile 26. In my mind that sucker was vertical and huge and I told myself that no matter how bad I felt and how awful the hill was, I would not walk! Not that there is any shame in walking, I just didn't want to walk that close to the finish line. I wanted to power through and reach the finish without walking up that last hill! Let me tell you, building something up to the worst possible thing you can imagine is a great strategy! When I finally got to the hill I'd been dreading, it looked nothing like I was expecting and I picked up the pace a bit and sailed to the top! Of course my overall pace wasn't exactly speedy and stellar, but I did finish and added that 18th notch to my mental race belt. Ahhhh, the finish line.

A few more race day pics...

Some pics from the day after the race...

My first time to see the WWII Memorial which was very cool.

Colin next to his home state at the WWII Memorial.

As close as we were allowed to get to the White House.

The whole weekend was definitely one to remember and to celebrate the gift of being able to run. Getting to share it with friends and family make it even more memorable. Congrats to ALL who ran this marathon and know that I was praying for all of the runners that I knew out there on the course! You guys all rocked it! So proud of everyone! Until the next time.... :)

2010 Marine Corps Marathon and 10K Running Skirts in Action

WOW!!! I've never made it on a skirt video before in a marathon! My friend Wendy posted this on her facebook page. She is at 19 seconds in the red dotted skirt and Mini Mouse ears with a big smile on her face! I'm at 57 seconds in a hot pink skirt and black tank. YAY for us!

It was gorgeous weather in DC for the entire weekend! Colin and I had a great time, loved where we stayed, loved being in the city, and both crossed the finish line and got our medals! He ran his FIRST marathon, woo hoo!!! So proud of him, he powered through despite major leg cramping from mile 16 to the end, yikes! He finished in 4:55 and plans to run another one when he has time to train, work schedule was nuts for him this time around. Plus he sprained his ankle at the end of August and lost 3 weeks of training. Congrats to him on becoming a marathoner!

I finished right back in the time zone of my first two marathons, uggh! But I was really burned out and tired from the all the tri's this summer, mainly the Ironman and then the half-iron in September, just had no speed in training so I knew it wouldn't be there race day. BUT I did finish and got the medal, in 4:31.

This was my 18th marathon, something to celebrate right? I signed up for Dallas White Rock Marathon on Dec. 5 because I don't know if I'll get to run one this spring if we are moving, lots of "up in the air" things in life right now. And I figure if I rest up, don't do any long runs that will beat me down, get out there and hit some speedwork, I can at least run a 4:29! Ha ha! Seriously, it would be nice to run around a 4 hour or 4:15, not trying to BQ, just trying to bank on my training and take a little time off. PLUS my friends from Arkansas are running and I get to meet up with them and stay in the same hotel with them! And I will get to see two nieces and a nephew who LIVE there! Can't beat it! Besides, I've never run this marathon before. Did I convince you why I need to run it yet? :)

Most of the fun is hanging out with your friends at the finish and talking about the race! My two girlfriends from Rochester, Wendy and Steph (okay, actually she is from Canada!) met at the expo and at the finish and hashed out our race stories. I also loved meeting up with my Aunt Lisa who ran a 4:36, she has run Boston 5 times and is going back again this spring. My Uncle Mike, (Lisa's brother, both are my Mom's siblings...) ran a 3:33 and he's 54! His fastest marathon time is 3:08 which he ran not too long ago. I can't help but brag on their running times!!! (Lisa's PR is 3:45, since I'm in the bragging zone...) My cousin's husband, Austin, also ran this marathon on limited training time and STILL finished! And one of the most special finishers, Jen, my sis-in-law, ran her FIRST marathon in 5:03! Sadly we didn't get to meet up though we did try! I'm really SAD about that! But oh so proud of her! You can read her 6 posts about her first marathon on her blog.

I didn't mean to make this post so long. I will post a real story about my race soon, and will throw in a few pictures. Just wanted to share the skirt video and give a basic re-cap. CONGRATS to all of you who rocked the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon!!!