City of Oaks Marthon 2008

Wow. As I sit down to write this, my eyes are watering. I cannot believe it's over and that I did it. I am so grateful to the Lord for the strength to persevere and endure.

The first marathon I did was in 2001, the Marine Corps Marathon. Seven years and two pregnancies later, I completed my second marathon. After running the Marine Corps, I remember telling myself that I would NEVER do it again, as it was so painful, but. . .

Yesterday morning, Anna picked me up at 5:45 and we headed to Centennial Campus at NC State. As we drove, we were like teenage girls, bubbling with excitement and anticipation. For 18 weeks we have been faithfully training, looking forward to this day.

At 7am the bullhorn sounded and we were off. The first 9 miles were incredible. You can't help but feed off the excitement of all the other runners. As we headed into Umstead Park, at mile 15, it was beautiful. The trees' colors were gorgeous and they stood so tall. And the gravel felt so good beneath my feet. This love for Umstead's beauty quickly waned, as I realized we were climbing hill after hill. When we finally came out at mile 18, I was so relieved and thought for sure that there would be no more hills. I was wrong. The hills did not end until mile 22. Thankfully, Matt, the kids, and my wonderful friend, and neighbor, Roxann were waiting for me at mile 20. It was so uplifting to see them. It gave me the strength to go on. Matt even ran next to me for a minute. All I could say was, "please pray for me, I'm dying". Tears were glistening in my eyes. From mile 21 to 26, I was really angry--my thoughts were, "why did you sign up for this stupid race, no human body is meant to run this long, you will never ever do this again, don't even think about it". The only thing that kept me running was that I knew I would get to the finish line faster if I ran instead of walked. My legs were in such pain that I was not sure if I was running. I kept looking down at my feet to make sure there were moving. When I hit mile 23 I decided that I was going to walk, but I was scared that if I walked I would never start running again, so I told myself that I would go 1 more mile and then walk. When I hit mile 24, I realized that this distance to the finish line was the same as the distance from my house to Harris Teeter and back. So I started to visualize my walk to Harris Teeter. I knew that I still had enough left to run to Harris Teeter and back. My mind was going at this point, so I was envisioning myself walking with the kids to HT, stopping to look at the geese and fountains. I even imagined myself chugging a Dr. Pepper at mile 25, the equivalent of walking to HT. Hitting mile 25 was incredible. I knew there was only 1 mile left. As I neared the finish line, I saw Matt and the kids. . .it was the last little push I needed. Crossing that finish line was amazing. Granted, I could not really walk, but it still felt amazing. Thank you Jesus for the strength to run this race. God gives us strength to do all things.

Though crossing the finish line was incredible, my most emotional and memorable moment, was watching Anna cross the finish line. I'm tearing up as I write this. She has been my dear running partner, and friend, for over a year now and it was incredible to watch her finish the race. I am so grateful that the Lord let us do this together.

I must confess that though I was dead, my first stop was not home. . .it was Cold Stone Creamery. Never, has a Cold Stone Creation tasted so good. Though it is difficult to walk stairs today and I did not sleep well last night, I feel great.

I'm looking forward to the next adventure. . .suggestions, anyone?

This is about 30 minutes after crossing the finish line. Though I'm smiling, my body is in pain.

Madeline and Ryan pass the time by running around some trees. Can you tell that Daddy dressed them today. . .Mommy would have drawn the line at the black tights with the blue skirt, and there's no way those tennis shoes would have made the "out the door" cut. :) Really, though, I don't care. She beautiful whether or not she matches.