Well kids, I made it through allllll 26.2 miles of my marathon!!!!!
Here is all about it (I know you want to know! Ha!):
As if
that wasn't enough to worry about, on Wednesday I decided to wear these
J. Crew flats that I don't wear on reg to school, leaving me with this
horrible bunion type deal on my left pinky toe! It hurt so bad on Friday (yes,
the day before the race!), I called my mom crying! She advised me to go to the store and buy basically every pain cream/pill/medication possible. So I came home from Target with: Icy Hot, Orajel, moleskin padding, callus cushions, and my personal fav, BC powder. Such a redneck, I am.
The Icy Hot and Orajel helped to numb the pain, and then I made a paste with the BCs and that helped take down the inflammation.
So here's what it looked like Friday night: (gross, I know; I hate feet!)
{see? the left pinky toe? it was twice that size earlier in the day!}
Saturday, I woke up, felt fine and spent 25 minutes with my Rock Tape, taping both knees and my ankle. I thought about taping my bunion but I was scared that might irritate it more.
Travis dropped me off uptown, where I met up with my friend and almost instantly, my bunion started hurting. I was FREAKING OUT! Luckily, once the race started and I began to run, it felt ok.
The first few miles were great! I was easily holding an 8:00 pace (maybe even a little under), and I was really happy about the playlist I had made! I saw some of my friends cheering for me, and loved all of the funny signs.
A few of my faves:
"Blister are in this season" (bunions, too?!)
"If this didn't suck, I'd be doing it"
"Run now, wine later"
So then about mile 5, my stupid bunion started hurting REALLLLLLY BAD. I was freaking out! I wasn't even to the 10k mark yet!!!!! I passed the 10k mark at 50:41, which I thought was incredibly slow. Luckily right after that point, my foot magically became numb and I was able to pick it up a bit!!!
I saw Kathryn around mile 11, with her sweet dog cheering me on! I just remember yelling to her, "my foot is NUMB!!!!" Hahah. Here is the pic she took of me.
After mile 12, the marathoners split from the half-marathoners, which was super depressing because: A. I was jealous they were almost done and I wasn't even half way done, B. they were fewer fans now cheering us on, and C. There were wayyyy fewer runners, so I was essentially all by myself there for a bit! I made it to the halfway mark (13.1 miles) at 1:46:15. So I was still on pace to finish in under 4 hours (my goal)!
I felt great up until about mile 16. We turned north and the wind was out.of.control. My knees also started hurting a little at this point. I had heard mile 18 was the worst mile, but that's where I saw my sweet husband cheering for me (and also there was not a lot of wind at that point!), so it wasn't too bad!
However, the worst was after mile 20. The longest I had run was 20 miles, so I thought I'd be able to do another 6 no problem. Ummmmmm NO! Running for 2 hours and 42 minutes and then having to run ANOTHER 6 miles is probably the worst/most depressing thing ever! Plus it felt like it was all uphill! And also, we were in the straight up GHETTO. Like, I was less than 5 miles from my school I think. So there were not a lot of people to cheer and help push me along!
I just remember seeing TONS of runners stopping to stretch and walk. A lot looked like they were in excruciating pain. It was extremely discouraging. I knew that if I stopped to walk, I would not be able to get running again, so I told myself I was only going to stop at the water stations. Thank god for the water stations!!! I walked through them so I could chug my Gatorade, and then kept running.
The last mile (and that stupid extra 2 tenths they just HAD to throw in there) was possible the longest mile I've ever run in my whole life. I thought I was never going to make it!!! As I got closer to the finish line, I saw the clock...it was on the 3:30-something....WHAT?!? No way that was right!!! I literally dragged my body across the finish line, and my official time was 3:35:00!! That's actually good enough to qualify me for the Boston Marathon! Yeah right, like I am ever going to put my body through this again!!!! No thanks!!!!!
{So happy to be done!!!}
Please excuse that I look like CRAP! I just ran for 3.5+ hours.
{Yay for my husband!}
Today I am so sore, I can barely move. As tired as I was last night, I kept waking up every time I moved in my sleep because literally every muscle/joint/part of my body is aching!!!! Even my elbows!!!!
So no, I will
never, ever run a marathon again!!!
Was it fun? Ehhhh debatable. The first 12 miles, yes. The rest,
no.
Pure hell.
Please don't ever run a marathon unless you are completely crazy, willing to not have any sort of life for 2-3 months and enjoy not moving from sore muscles! Take it from me...the half is much more civilized! :)
Sorry for the longest and possibly most boring post ever...just wanted to make sure I talked you out of running a marathon...and if I ever even think about running another one, I wanted something I could read to talk me out of it as well!!
Happy Sunday and Happy Thanksgiving!!!!