I did it!!!

I did it!! I ran my very first marathon! Words cannot describe what an amazing experience it was!! It was so much fun and felt so great to accomplish a goal that I have worked so hard for and for so long! It was the best feeling in the world! :)




We flew to San Francisco Friday evening and visited with my family. My sister Michele, her husband John and their baby Boston were in town too. Saturday Randy and I went into the city to the Marathon Expo. It was a beautiful day and being around all the people at the Expo just made me so excited for the race the next day!


After the Expo, we met up with Shel, John and Boston at Pier 39. Then my Mom and Dad and brother Landon came into the city to meet up with all of us for an early dinner at the Franciscan Crab Restaurant at Fisherman's Wharf. It was delish!




My amazing and thoughtful parents were worried about me driving into the city the next morning at 2 a.m., battling traffic and parking and trying to get to the starting line on time, so they graciously offered to get us a hotel that night in the city. So after dinner at the Franciscan, Randy and I checked into our hotel in the city and got to bed early. Thank you Mom and Dad, you guys are the best! :)

Race Morning. Woke up at 3:45 a.m. Immediately ate one banana and one half of a bagel and got dressed and ready to head down to the starting line on Embarcadero. My amazingly supportive husband got out of bed and went down to the starting line with me, even though he was extremely tired and it was extremely cold outside. Thanks, babe :) We took a cab to the starting line and got there early with plenty of time to stretch, warm up, and drink a Zip Fizz energy drink :)





5:30 a.m.: The first wave of runners takes off. I was in the 8th wave, because it was my first marathon and I was not shooting for an awesome time, especially with my shin splints and lack of training. I just wanted to finish!

6:25 a.m.: My wave takes off! With a big smile on my face, I kiss my husband goodbye, and I am off! :)




The first mile was probably one of my favorites! I was so pumped and I had the biggest smile on my face for that entire first mile! I could NOT stop smiling!

Another one of my favorite miles was rounding Fisherman's Wharf and coming into sight of the Golden Gate Bridge. The sun was just rising and the fog had lifted just enough for us to be able to see the Bridge perfectly! I kept looking at the Bridge and thinking "I can't believe I am doing this!" I remember so long ago choosing to run the San Francisco marathon and thinking how cool it would be to run across the Golden Gate Bridge. And here I was, finally doing it! I had only run about 4 or 5 miles at that point, but I remember feeling extremely proud of myself that I had set this huge goal for myself and had reached it.

Running the Bridge was AMAZING! As one lane of runners ran onto the bridge, the lane next to us was filled with the runners running off of the bridge. (After crossing the bridge, the course just looped and then went back over the bridge into the city). I remember as we were running onto the bridge, all the runners who were running off the bridge had huge smiles plastered on their faces and were all giving us thumbs up telling us how awesome it was. And it really was!

Those first 8 miles flew by! I followed Jeff Galloways run/walk method throughout my training and throughout the marathon, so stopping to speed-walk for one short minute at each mile-marker helped me to count down the miles, and I felt it made the miles fly by faster. I also felt like it was nice to stop and walk once in a while to really enjoy the beautiful sights and surroundings, instead of just whizzing by everything. If you ever want to run a marathon just to run one and just to finish and not necessarily to get an amazing time, then that is definitely the way to do it!

Mile 13.1 Half way point. My time at the half-marathon mark was 2 hours, 19 minutes. And I was feeling great! 13.1 miles down, 13.1 more to go! And still feeling 100%! Shin splints weren't bothering me one bit!

Miles 13-19 were beautiful! We ran through Golden Gate Park, saw roaming Bison (who knew there were Bison roaming in San Francisco!!??), got lots of high fives from little kids who came out of their homes to cheer us on. Even got a handful of pretzels from some little boys on the side of the road passing out snacks to the runners. Was also offered beer at one of the water stations. Yes, beer. By wierd San Francisco people dressed as devils wearing devil horns and devil tails and holding big signs that said BEER and passing them out in little Dixie cups. So of course I drank some...KIDDING. I didn't see any runners drink any...and if they did they probably ended up throwing up somewhere along the course.

Mile 20, my left foot started to hurt pretty bad and I could feel blisters forming on both of my baby toes. Oh well, I thought. That is probably normal, considering I just ran 20 miles. Only 6 more miles to go. Plus, the last 6 miles of the course were pretty much all down hill, so I thought how much worse could it get.

Apparently, a lot. Because with every step I took, my left foot pounded into the pavement and the pain got worse...and worse...and worse. I stopped at one point to kinda stretch it and determine what exactly was causing the pain and what I did. But I couldn't figure it out and I just wanted to be done, so I just kept running. And walking. I must admit, I walked alot more those last 6 miles. They were extremely hard. And extremely painful. I thought the whole downhill thing would be nice for the last 6 miles...it was not. It was actually more painful, because it just meant heavier pounding on the pavement, and more stress and pain on my left foot. And these were not just little downhills. They were very steep and very long.

I think I started to hallucinate a little towards the end. I knew the finish line was just under the Bay Bridge, and at one point I remember seeing it and it was so close and I was so excited. So I kept running and running and running. I ran underneath it and thought, hey where is the finish line? Then I passed another mile marker that said Mile 23. What the!!?? 3.2 more miles to go!!?? And then I rounded another corner and saw the ACTUAL Bay Bridge...which was still far away. So later I was telling this to my parents and they told me I was crazy because there was no other bridge over there in that part of the city...but I still swear I ran underneath one around Mile 23, lol!

By the time I was running my last mile, my foot was in so much pain I cringed every time it hit the ground. I scanned the crowds for my family and finally saw my Dad screaming and yelling out of the corner of my eye. As soon as I saw him I just got the biggest smile on my face and got this huge burst of energy to finish! I looked ahead and saw the rest of my family and Randy and I waved and smiled at all of them. For those last 20 seconds, the pain in my foot seemed to dissapear and I sprinted to the finish line with a huge smile on my face! See babe, I told you I would have a smile on my face when I crossed the finish line ;)






After crossing the finish line, I got my medal and grabbed some food. I was starving and I think I grabbed one of every kind of food in sight at the finishing line...which is why I am holding a banana like an idiot in many of the after pictures. :)




Randy was the first one to reach me and just gave me the biggest hug! It was so awesome to have him there waiting for me at the finish line! And it was so great to have my Mom, Dad, Landon, Shel, John, and Boston there too! After congrats and pictures, we took off for lunch at my fave: FENTONS! I confessed to my family after the marathon was over that during those last 6 miles when I was in a lot of pain, the only thing that kept me going was telling myself I could eat at Fentons afterwards! :) The best crab-salad sandwhiches in the world and the most amazing ice cream sundaes ever made! Yum!

So we celebrated at Fentons and then went home to rest, finally :) When we got home and I carefully peeled my shoes off of my throbbing feet, my left foot was swollen to almost twice the size of my right foot. And it had a huge reddish purplish mark on the top outer side of my foot. After talking to a few people and describing the type of pain and what it looked like and felt like, I think we have come to the conclusion that my shoe laces were too tight on that foot. I know that seems crazy that such a simple thing as too tight shoe laces would do that much damage or be that painful, but after running 26.2 miles, any tiny trivial thing like that can make a HUGE difference!

Despite my swollen and bruised foot that I can barely walk on and am hobbling around on, the whole thing went extremely smoothly! I am amazed that my shin splints, which have held me back a LOT in my training, didn't bother me one bit during the race, or after! I also never had to stop to use the bathroom even once during the entire marathon! A miracle! I had a blast the entire time, even during those difficult last 6 miles!

Thank you to my husband and family for supporting me and being there for me! And thank you to so many friends and family who have supported me and had to put up with me talking about nothing but marathon and running and shin splints for these past few months. :) I recieved lots of medical advice and running advice and marathon advice from friends and family, and it all helped a lot! I know that some people thought I was crazy for still doing the race even though my shin splints never went away and even though I took a lot of time off from training because of injuries and even though before the marathon my longest run had been a little over 13 miles...so I am thankful that not person, not even the people who thought I was crazy, ever told me I couldn't do it or discouraged me from doing it. They just supported me and believed in me! And man am I glad I stuck with it, because the feeling in the end was incredible! I am so glad that I did it and I would do it all again in a heartbeat! I cannot wait to run another one again someday...