Completing My First 26.2 Miles

I did it, I actually did it, I finished a full marathon, all 26.2 miles of it. And after getting over forgetting about the pain, and after getting a great massage, and after a few margaritas, I can say (with confidence) that it was a great experience, a humbling experience, an experience that I will never forget—instead of the pain part, I obviously forgot that part.  I say this because, although, it hasn't yet been a week since the marathon, I'm already making plans for my next marathon.  I blame it on the endorphins, and on that massage.

So how did it go?  Well, the weather leading up to the marathon had been pretty awful: constant rain with no chance of dry weather. Being a nervous wreck during the ten days leading up to the marathon, I spent a lot of my time checking the weather on every imaginable weather web page I could find, looking for updates every thirty minutes, trying a different web page, hoping for a better forecast, but the forecast was always the same: scattered thunderstorms. Therefore, instead of hoping for fair weather, I started to pray for not-so-bad weather.  A steady, light rain would be fine or even just rain without thunder and lightning. Yes, as long as there was no thunder or lighting, I would be happy.

Convinced that I would not let the weather get the best of me, I packed for every possible weather scenario.  In addition to the regular running attire I had planned to wear, I packed a disposable rain poncho; a trash bag; a jacket which I planned to discard during the race; and a lightweight, water-resistant, running jacket that folded into its own little pouch, and which fit nicely into my running belt.

 

The morning of the race, our Team in Training (TNT) group assembled in the hotel lobby so we could take a group photo and walk over to the start line together.  Once the photographs were taken, and everyone was ready to go, we began to walk over to the start line. 

And, unfortunately, my weather readiness was not disappointed.  The moment we arrived at the start line, the temperature went down by about ten degrees and it began to rain, but, no problem, I had my poncho and jacket. The start line was jam-packed; it was hard to move into position.  Supposedly, they had set-up starting corrals, but I never really saw them.  I just saw a bunch of porta potties and spectators blocking the way and not letting the runners get through to the start line.  I’m not really sure how we did it, but somehow we pushed our way to the start line, and ended up in position one minute before the gun went off. (You'll have to excuse the blurriness of some of these pictures.  It's hard to take pictures while running)

 

And we were off—theoretically.  At this point, my heart was probably moving faster than my legs, since it took about ten minutes for us to actually cross the official start line, after which I started to run slowly jog, and strangely enough passed quite a lot of people.  In a way it was a bit of a morale boost, but, in a way, dodging walkers and discarded clothing items as if on an obstacle course got old pretty quickly.  After finally making it through that obstacle course, we started to run on a bridge, but I actually hadn’t registered the fact that we were on a bridge, and began to feel lightheaded  (no doubt because I hadn’t had any sleep the night before), and I started to worry that I might pass out, until I overhead someone talking to her friend saying, “Can you feel that?  The bridge is shaking!”  It sure was a relief to realize that I wasn’t going to pass out any time soon.  

 

Soon, I took off the poncho, even though it was still raining.  It just was too hard to run with that poncho on, and, anyways, it really wasn't doing much to keep me dry at this point. Next, I took off my throw-away jacket, and was considering actually throwing it by the side of the road, but could not let go of the jacket.  Some invisible force kept that jacket permanently attached to my hand.  I was going to drop it off at the next water stop, no, the next one, no, the next one.  I kept this up until I just told myself that I would hold on to the jacket until I got to about mile six where Hubby was going to be.  Mile three passed, mile four, mile five.  Then I heard two familiar voices shout out, “Nicole!”  I looked over and saw my friends Holly and Susy. I was screaming. I was jumping up and down. Then I looked farther down and saw Hubby standing there taking pictures.  To say that, that moment was the highlight of the race, would be an understatement.

 

Unless you count being serenaded by Elvis.

Or seeing Big Foot holding a sign which read, “Run, Human, Run.”

Or this guy, huh?

 

And then, just as I was starting to question my ability to finish the marathon, I see this guy:

It was around that time when my legs cramped up, and I stopped.  I think I hit the wall, well that’s what I thought it was.  I mean, my legs cramped up and wouldn’t move, doesn’t that sound like the wall?  My legs hurt really, really badly.  I gave birth to a baby without pain killers, and still didn’t remember that kind of pain.  It was so bad, I started to use my Lamaze breathing techniques, which freaked out some of the runners because everyone (yes, I actually do mean everyone) that was passing me at this point stopped for a moment to ask me if I was okay.  

Finally, one of the TNT coaches showed up around this point and asked me how I was doing.  I told him that I was just fine, but that my legs hurt really, really badly and that I thought I had just hit the wall because my legs wouldn't move and isn't this what hitting the wall meant? He just told me that I was crazy for thinking I could run a marathon needed to drink more water, and eat a few more energy gels.  Fortunately, they were handing out energy gels at this point of the race, and I started to stock up on them.  By the end of the race, I’m sure that I had consumed at least eight packages of energy gels, twice the number that I had packed for the race.

Pretty soon, I started to feel better, so the coach abandoned me ran back to check on the other team members.  Waddling along bowlegged, taking my time like it was a simple Sunday stroll, I mentally clawed my way to the finish line, when all of a sudden I looked behind me and saw Kim, another TNT member.  We greeted each other, she continued on, and not too long after that, I got my second wind and started to run. It was a miracle!  My legs started to work again.  Before I knew it, I was at mile 25.5 and Susy and Holly were standing there cheering me on again and giving me another boost, which helped me get to the finish line.

I earned this medal, and I also earned the sticker: the 26.2 sticker.  Now my 13.1 sticker doesn't have to hang out on my minivan all by its lonesome self.

The runner girl accomplishes her goal, runs her first marathon, crosses the finish line, sets a personal record of 5:25:11, THE END...

Coming soon, to a race nearby, an amnesiac runner girl decides to conquer what she had always thought she wanted to do: run her first marathon race.

Yes, I already signed up for my next race. I think that it's official, I have lost my mind.