Lessons Learned, Medal Earned! :-)

I did it!!!! I went the distance. Every step of 26.2 is mine. No one can ever take that away from me. It's here to stay! I got the t-shirt, I got the sticker, I learned a few lesssons, I earned the medal. I am stronger than I've ever been - mentally. It makes me crave more. I really want to do better. I pushed through pain I've never experienced before. I wanted to quit. I suffered - more than I expected. I was SPENT at mile 17 - with 9 to go. I did it - like I said... it was not pretty. I completed the marathon. I'm not pleased with my results, but this will bring me to my knees enough to know I need to train harder, run more often and most of all.... do more semi-longer runs in between long runs. Granted, it was near impossible with 2 knee injuries setting me back on weeks 6 & 9-12. Now I think I realize the importance of those 10 & 12 milers on the weeks you aren't doing a long run. I'd have to say those are building your base. And your base is going to be more important than your long run - at least it is for me. Yesterday my base was not there and it showed. It was somewhat expected, but it's still a bit dissapointing! I carb-loaded the week before, I rested, I stretched, I did everything I could think of to do because I knew I didn't have enough training miles in the bank. Just so ya know, there is NOTHING that can make up for not enough training miles :-) I am honored that God has blessed me with the legs, the drive, the family who supported me, and the 2 guardian angels who pushed me to the finish yesterday.


I got to Nashville, around 2:00 Friday afternoon. Checked into my hotel, made my way down to the convention center around 3:30-ish to the expo. Complete chaos & madness in downtown. No parking, raging traffic - it was a mess. The expo was just as bad as the streets & parking lots. By the time I got out of there I wasn't brave enough to try and find the kids marathon. I made it back to my room and around 6:30 went next door to TGIF's & ordered chicken bruchetta pasta, & an ice cold mich ultra! Shortly after, K made it up & we headed back down tno TGIF's again so that he could eat. Got in bed around 10pm. I think I woke up about every hour from anxiety. Alarm goes off at 4:32am, I order room service. I had oatmeal and a piece of toast with pb & honey. K had eggs, sausage & toast. We got ready and headed to the start line in our ponchos. Yep! It was raining. We found Lana & Mike at the gear check. Then it was 5 minutes till 7am & I couldn't find Lana anymore so K & I rushed to the start line. But 5 min later, Lana popped up! She started with me in coral 4. Yippee!!! I think we took off around 6 minutes after 7 & I felt great. I was keeping around a 9 minute pace and was only focusing on holding back. I just wanted to save my energy for 10-20. 5K time was 28 minutes - yikes... a little fast. I tried to slow it down, but it just seemed like I wasn't even running. Guess who I saw at mile 4! My daddy! :-) He spotted me in his binoculars and snapped a pic of me. He showed me where my mom was standing & I looked over and she was screaming as loud as she could and cheering! I couldn't resist - I was so happy to see them, I had to run over and give her a hug & a kiss on the cheek! After all, this is supposed to be fun, right? I was so proud to see her there! It is amazing that just 4 weeks ago she was undergoing major spinal surgery and she is doing awesome.

Here's me running over to hug my mom!

I was feeling great! Legs felt good & kept an eye on the garmin - it looked like I was hitting below 9 min miles, but to me it felt like I was only running 10 min miles! The support & entertainment on the first 11 miles was awesome. I saw my parents again right after the 10K mark where my overall pace had dropped to an 8:51. I pretty much know at this point I've gone out a little too aggresive. One of the Belmont churches had a choir & band out there singing a beautiful "Halleluia" song at mile 7 that gave me chill bumps and put total perma-grin on my face for a couple of miles! These guys have the right idea!!! Mile 9, I'm scanning the crowd for the yellow "Livestrong" shirt on the sidewalks. K had planned to meet me somewhere between mile 9 & 10 :-) Mile 9.7 he drops in with me. At the 10 mile marker my garmin said 1:28, which was an 8:49 overall pace. By mile 11 I started getting a really fatigued feeling on the back of my legs - like... where the leg meets the buns. Was it the hills? This was where I took my first gel (strawberry banana) & chased with water. Mile 12, I started having lots of pressure. As in - bathroom pressure. K & I stopped at the next porta-potty and I relieved myself with at least 5 min wasted - couldn't help it. It was a really strange poo & I'll just leave it at that :-/ I felt better. But then at mile 15 I started feeling bad again!!! We stopped and walked for a couple of minutes - I was starting to feel like a real loser & I realized my time was shot!! And at this point I saw no end in sight. I could not imagine running 11 more miles. The top back of my legs and hips were SCREAMING at me! We pushed on through 16 and mile 17 presented us with a hill that looked as if it were 3 miles long. However; I think it was probably only about .75 of a mile or so. I did another gel (Tangerine) at mile 17 & ate 2 pretzels & drank a small cup of salt water. Mile 18, there was severe bathroom pressure again & I didn't think I'd make it to find a porta-potty. Finally one showed up & I spent a good 5 or 6 minutes in there. It was never-ending & I can't figure out where all this goofy looking poo was coming from!!! LOL. I would think "goodness that has to be the end of it!" but I was wrong! Surely I've evacuated my system!!! K was holding strong -- continually supporting me & telling me how strong I was. It was REAL REAL good to have him out there with me! I needed it! Miles 19 & 20 turned into a slow shuffle. At the completion of mile 20, you head back into downtown. Thank Goodness because miles 13-19 are completely DEAD and boring!!!! I saw my daddy! He was waiting to get pics!


Mile 20 I'm expecting Lana. She was right when she told me earlier this week she'd push, pull or drag me to the finish. She had a camelbak with my gatorade endurance & anything else I might need. K decided to go ahead and finish out the last 6 with us, which gave him approximately 16.3 miles for the day. WOW! We all 3 got about a half mile & I got a side stitch and had to slow down, breathe out really hard & finally just stop and bend over for about 15 seconds to relieve it. Starting back from walking is like... the most painful thing. It was like my hips and legs were locked and I had to pry them back open everytime. Looking back on it, I should have been rolling it out with a jog instead of thinking I would get relief from walking. There was no relief. It was almost more painful to walk than to jog. And mentally it broke me to pieces. I was disgusted. Mile 21 - pressure - ugh-oh guys... look for a porta-potty. This is a bad one!!!! Oh my! I am not sure if I'm goin to be able to hold it!!!! Lana reminded me to squeeze it in tight! LOL. K finally saw a porta-potty in the distance & sprinted ahead to make sure one was available for me. When I got there, this guy had it set up RIGHT! He had cleaned the seat (as much as possible) and it lined it with toilet paper. It was a good thing. I was in there awhile - still wondering where this bizare stuff is coming from! LOL. And the flow just continued. I finally had nothing left! So we take off and get to around mile 22 & I have to stop AGAIN at a porta-potty. This time... it was just mostly gas but after the other 3 episodes you don't trust gas! Right before stopping we passed Michele & Heather & they were on mile 24! These girls rocked the CMM & sub-4'd!!!! AWESOME!!! Lana convinces me to gel it up! She said if there is anyway I can stand it, right now is the time to take it to push me to the finish. I did a caramel one & chased with water from the medical tent. I do think it may have given me a bit of a push, but that push just don't last long enough. We jogged it out to around mile 24 where I was just in so much pain, 2.2 miles seemed like an eternity. I didn't think I would make it. Then one of the bands started playing the song "Lovin.... is what I GOT! Remember THAT!... Life is too short so love the one ya got or might got run over or you might get SHOT!" and all three of us started singing it! It was a great moment that can never be replaced!!!! K & Lana mentally pushed me & encouraged me to shuffle. I would try but it just wouldn't last too long and I'd be walking again. And I almost just wanted to stop and just lay down in the grass. This HAD to be my most painful run ever! I hurt much much worse at mile 16 than I did on any of my long training runs. Mile 25 there was a final water stop & I walked it & took in as much water as possible. From there on out we shuffled to mile 26 where Lana & K peeled off & I surged to the finish line probably as hard as I could go at the time. The finish chute is awesome!!!! Total time: 4:33. Not exactly what I had hoped for or even feel like I am capable of. It was a finish though & now I am a marathoner! :-)


I must have looked pretty bad at the line because a medical person with gloves approached me & said "Are you ok??? Do you need anything?" And I said "Nah! I think I'm fine. Thanks though!" lol. I got my cape, my medal & as I was trying to find where to get my chip cut off I saw Tim. Who was going for a PR (approximately a 3:45) but suffered from severe cramps in his calf & didn't make his goal. However, he still rocked it out with a 4:07!!! I got my chip cut off, grabbed an apple & took two bites, a small container of pineapple and wanted OUT of there to find my family. I was hurting bad. I found them!!! They were so happy to see me & I was happier to see them! K was feeling fine from his 16 miler & Lana was tickled to death for me even though she put in a total of 18.1 miles for the day including her 1:54 half mary time, plus meeting me at mile 20. What a support crew I had! How did I ever get so lucky? They got me to the finish. I don't think I could have made it without them!
This is me & my proud Momma!
Me with Momma & Daddy!

Me with Lana & my mom.

And me & my proud Daddy!
Me & K

And.... this picture speaks for itself! I love it. It brings tears to my eyes.

Congratulations to Tim, Lee, Heather, Michele, Mary Beth, Amy, Audra, Patricia, Rosiland, and John D, Lisa, Holly J, Karen H, Mike & everyone else!!!