run run run

Saturday was the big day. The Oz Marathon in Olathe, Kansas. Here I am before the race in the hotel lobby with Sarah, Kristen, Jen, and Chris. All from Kirksville. We were all pretty excited and talking about things like bowel movements, gu strategy, and especially how cold and windy it looked outside.
Here's how my first marathon went...
Miles 1-12: The running was good.
Josh saw me off at mile one with all the kids. He left after that to dye Easter eggs with Grandma Beth, Auntie Juju, and Johnathan.
An older guy asked Kristen, Sarah and me if he could "pace" with us for a while. He was hilarious. He sang paratrooper cadences to keep us steady. He made the miles fly by.
We saw a man running in bare feet.
Our fingers were frozen.
Lots of good material for people watching.
At mile 12 Kristen and I said good bye to Sara, who was running the half. She did awesome!

Miles 13-21: The running was exciting.
After mile 12 the marathoners turned onto a paved trail that followed a little river through the woods. At mile 18 you turn around and come back on the same trail. So on the way out you pass all the super fast runners, and on the way back you pass the slower than you runners. This made for a lot of variety in the view. Congratulating and cheering on all the fast people took our minds off our our own running. After we turned around to come back we were motivated by trying to stay ahead of all the slow pokes.
We talked to a man dressed as The Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. Not only was he completely dressed in a Halloween costume, but he was also wearing homemade rubber sandals!
We passed lots of women dressed as Dorothy.
Grown men dressed as Winnie the Pooh and Tiger passed us.
Took a much needed bathroom break. That port a potty was nasty.

Miles 22-26: the running got harder and harder.
Each mile my legs got heavier and heavier.
I chanted, "Tuck-er, Ven-na, Jo-nah, Josh-u-a," over and over to help keep me moving.
We started passing walkers. My body tried to convince me to walk, too.
My brain and Kristen wouldn't let me.
I actually don't remember much about this stretch except that I had to have a continual pep talk running through my head.

26.1 and 26.2: oh, the pain!
Why was the last bit uphill? Why did it have to be windy?!
Kristen yelled to pick up the pace.
She yelled that we had to beat the ladies ahead of us. (We did.)
Kristen kept yelling.
She's crazy like that.

The finish: amazing.
Kristen and I crossed together.
I had a hard time staying upright.
My family was there waiting for me.

Kristen and I rocked that marathon! The top number on my watch is our finish time! That's a whole 10 minutes faster than what we were hoping for!

I feel so good about that marathon. I got so lucky to find a great running partner. We were able to run the entire race. Except for the cold wind, the conditions were perfect.

I can't wait to run my next one!