Rev3 Maine OLY Race Recap: The bike

Read part one of my race recap (The Swim) here.

Yes! I didn't drown!

So I get out of my wet suit, shake off the cramping as best I can and find my bike. The good news is it seems everyone had left before me so my bike was very easy to find and I had all the space in the world! (See there is an upside to being a back of the packer.) If you look behind me you can see Angela squatting down and getting herself ready for the bike as well.

I'm not an awesome biker. I was lent a Canondale at the beginning of Tri season. A pretty nice one in fact. I even put some money into it - getting it fit, upgrading the tires, even adding something with the rings to help climb easier... But I could never get used to the bike. The clip less pedals continued to freak me out. I just couldn't get out of them and the fit isn't quite right. They brought the seat up as high as they could for leg length but the handlebars feel way too far away. I can barely reach the breaks. It just feels awkward - there's one last thing to try with the handlebars but I might have to let it go, get to a bike shop and get one that fits. 

Anyway, since comfort on the bike never happened, I never got around to riding a bike outside this summer. So the last time I rode a bike was last September at my sprint tri. And that was an 8.25 mile bike. I did a few sporadic spin classes so that had to suffice as my bike training.

So for my first ever 25 mile bike ride I would be using a hybrid with regular pedals. (And I was very happy to have it! This too is a borrowed bike from my friend Roxi - she was supposed to get it back already but with all the traveling this summer never got it to her. Which was lucky for me.) 

A side note: I was pretty much the only person in the whole race with a hybrid. Everyone else had a road or tri bike. I couldn't even fit the tire in the little narrow groove they provide to rack your bike. No problem, I just deployed the fancy kick stand! ;) lol...

Anyway, I was silently sweating a little bit because I didn't know what to expect. I never really rode more than ten miles or so and that was a year ago - plus everyone said it might be tougher for me on a heavier hybrid and without the benefit of the clip-in pedals. 

But off we go.

The course was beautiful. There were a few challenging hills but nothing horrible. I enjoyed the bike and just had a few dumb little issues like having a tough time getting my water bottle out... Well I finally got it out but couldn't get it back in so I stuck it in the back pocket of my kit. I also had a few cramps happen during the ride in my feet and whatever the muscle is under the shins. I'm just a cramper. But they would subside and it wasn't anything that stopped me in my tracks. 

The other triathletes were awesome out there. Very friendly, many waving and rooting us on. I love this about REV3 it's just such a friendly vibe. If I ever (hardy-har-har-har) were going to do a 70 or 140 I think I would want it to be a REV3 race. 

So 25 miles come and go and I know I'm almost home free! I didn't drown or crash - my two fears. Only 6 little miles stood between us and the finish line. 

Read the last part of the race report - the run HERE

XO

Jen 

Hollywood Half race recap: Action, drama and happily ever after

My latest half marathon racing journey brought me back West to run the inaugural Hollywood Half. As someone who has always had a love for the "lights, camera, action" and old school glamour of Hollywood, this race had my name allll over it. Starting on a red carpet at Universal Studios? Running up Hollywood Blvd.? The coolest bling ever? Sign. Me. Up.

It was an interesting race and challenging from before it even started. I stay with my business partner and running buddy Angela. She lives about 15 minutes from the starting line in Los Angeles and just getting to Universal was a challenge. Every road to get up to Universal was blocked, we wound up having to drive ten miles in another direction just to get to be able to get there. Ugh. Thanks to that minor issue, I once again missed the boat and opportunity to finally meet Caroline, friend and blogger of Canadian Runner in Exile. Boo.  One of these races it'll happen.

Once we got there, the race was already starting.  I was lucky enough to find Karen, who is a good friend of mine out here and was about to run her very first half marathon. That was awesome - we got to give each other quick hugs and good wishes for the race and ran the first mile or two together until the crowd got thicker and we lost each other.

even the bib is cute!

The start was a little slow because of the crowd but I didn't care. We started on a red carpet and literally ran thru city walk at Universal Studios. It was super cool.

Then we turned out onto Cahuenga Blvd for our start. Which was downhill - I knew what went down would eventually go back up so I let the momentum of the hill carry me swiftly downward and I was feeling good. My first few miles I was running faster than I would usually run but I felt good so I kept a decent pace. I kept seeing that I was running a bit on the faster side and kept trying to put the breaks on as to "pace myself." I like to typically keep the first half a bit more conservative and bring it up a bit from miles 6-10 and then really power home the last 5K.

Well. I tried.

I was feeling great. I was a little concerned because the water stations began to not have cups after about mile 6 so I wasn't as hydrated as I would've liked to be. I was also a tad concerned because I thought they were to have Vitalyte on the course. Maybe they did but I never saw it so I wasn't getting a sports drink.  Again, I wasn't overly concerned. I often skip the sports drink during the race because sometimes it makes my tummy wonky and I had two gels and a packet of sports beans -- both which has electrolytes so I figured that should be OK.

Um…

I never really needed my sports beans and was really feeling great thru mile ten and still running pretty speedy. Around this time my legs were starting to get a little sore and we were now climbing up hill. It wasn't fun. We had a headwind that was unbelievable. What I forgot from the beginning was how much hill it actually was.  The rest of the race became a shit show. Oh. My. God. I could've died. There was a guy holding a big sign, "Kill The Hill." The hill about killed me. I have never hated something so much.

Prior to this F'n hill - I was making unbelievable time. I remember my previous PR was in the 2:24 range and if I kept my pace I was looking at an (IMPOSSIBLE! WOW! HOLY COW) 2:15 finish. Holy hell that would be incredible. I felt like I could do it. Well. I could've if this was a flat course.

But then that hill from hell happened.  The hill got steeper and steeper.  Mile 11and 12 I had to walk. My calves were beginning to protest and I felt PR slipping away. I had to walk. WALK!? I couldn't believe I was walking. I kept pushing to run and I would a bit but my body was done. I kept digging and would run a spurt and couldn't sustain it. I was hating that hill. I called it every curse a Jersey girl could think of.  My pace went from 10' somethings to 12+'s. 

The last .25 or so of the course finally flattened out a bit and I could see the finish line. Oh hell, I could still pull something out. I looked down at my Garmin and I was around 2:17 I could still PR! So I began to run as hard as I could muster. Which wasn't a lot. Now my left foot/arch began to cramp and my left calf began to charlie horse and quiver. I felt it locking under me and threatening to bring me to my knees.  "Oh please lord, don't let me fall now. The finish line is so close!" Please, oh please just get me there. And somehow I crossed that finish line! Success.  Here was the official finish:

Previous best was 2:23:47 so I took almost 4 minutes off! And that was with walking uphill for two miles at 12:30 paces! (Splits here)  I didn't walk once at Surf City.  This was awesome! I was in pain but I was happy and then…

Holy. Mother. Of. God. I. am. going. to die.

I had to take a step up up a curb and I was done. From my ass to the tip of my toes on both legs had had it with me. And they seized in a writhing pain that I'd never experienced in my life. Thank goodness there was a pole nearby that I was able to grab to keep from collapsing but I let out a scream in pain that was unreal and dropped all my stuff to the ground. I couldn't move it was a charlie horse times 8 million in my entire lower half. My toes curled under and my feet distorted in spasm - my calves were on fire and cramped like I had never felt and I was shaking. 

Thank you, thank you for the kindness of strangers who caught me and helped me.  They tried to sit me on the floor but the pain was 4000 times worse so they lifted me from the ground. A 98 pound angel had me tight and helped me - she barked for help and a banana - I told her I was allergic to bananas and then she said OMG - you need electrolytes! Now! So I limply handed her my sports beans and she tore into the package and poured them in my mouth, another guy gave me his gatorade and said, please drink my drink - i'm not sick - I didn't care if he was. I washed my beans down with it. Another lady picked up my stuff and tucked it in the waistband of my pants. Thank you runners for your help. I would've died without it. You have no idea what you did for me.

The beans and gatorade helped. I was still hurting but the seizing subsided. And I hobbled up the rest of the hill to our car and waited for Angela to finish her run.

I think this is my seventh half and I leaned a few lessons. I think I became a little flip about 13.1 and my, "Oh I could so easily do this" came back to literally bite me in the ass. 13.1 is still quite a distance and I need to remember to respect it.

I need to remember the importance of pacing, hydrating, and fueling properly. I need to take in to consideration elevation and challenges and assume to bring my own stuff with me. And even though I was easily running those earlier miles, I still should've slowed a little to be ready to tackle those last 2 miles.

Aside from the challenge at the end (and almost dying) - I would say it was a FUN race. I thought Hollywood Half folks did a great job for an inaugural race - there were a few "bumps in the road" but no more than what's to be expected. Kudos to them.

Today, the day after, my legs are really sore. More sore than after my first full! The sorest I've ever been. It's humbling but fine.

So though there was a bit of Hollywood style drama, I still think I had my fairy tale ending. A gorgeous piece of bling, a PR and a bit of pride knowing that I finished as strong as I could. I certainly made mistakes but I left it all out there. And for that I am a proud.

XO
Jen

LA Firecracker "Year of The Dragon" race recap

Well I'm back in the dirty Jerz and reunited with my family. I missed my husband and son tremendously so it's great to be home.

Before flying back East on Monday, I participated in the LA Firecracker 'Year of The Dragon' 10K on Sunday.

I was pretty excited about this race, it sounded cool, starting in China Town and running up to Dodger Stadium.

view of Dodger Stadium

Now I was warned prior to the race that it was a little hilly. Eh. No sweat. I'm from Jersey. I am used to hills. Bring them on.

Me and Ang - I got a new green shirt for the occasion

Uh.

This was my very first timed 10K. 10K is a tricky little race - I mean in a 5K you kinda run balls to the wall, it's 'only' 3 miles and I can suck it up and run as fast as I can for that… And then for 13.1, so much of that is about pacing.  So what to do in a 10K?  What to do in a 10K where the first 2 miles are uphill?

Well. If you're me, you start off too fast and run as hard as you can until you feel like you're gonna die. Uphill

I don't know why I did that but that was my strategy.

Ugh.

The first two miles were not just hilly, they were entirely up steep hills. The hill felt like it was never going to end. Many around me walked, I pushed and ran and ran until I finally had to white flag it for a minute and walk, and then I ran and walked again. Boo.

Hill - OMFG when will it end?

Ugh.

When I tucked a gu in my race belt I thought I was being dramatic. "It's only a 10K" I thought. "I'll never use it" i believed. As I reached 2.5 miles and I was starting to feel spent, I was happy I had it and took it. It gave me the 2nd wind I needed.

I have to say, these hills sucked so bad that I cursed like a sailor for a good portion of it - I had to dig deep. I vacillated between hating the world and telling myself to suck it up, "you are training for awesome." The other thing that was annoying was the pavement was cracked and jacked the whole time so you had to be careful of footing in addition to booking up hill.

My legs were burning - I even had cramps in my glutes. A literal pain in the ass.

If the first 2 miles were hell, the next 2 miles were glorious - mostly down hill. It felt so good, letting gravity help pull you forward after all that work.  I thought the hills were behind us until what we came upon what I've affectionately called, "WTF mountain." Now, "WTF mountain" wasn't really a mountain but it was enough of a steep hill for me to literally growl WTF? when I saw it. I was not happy to see it but up and over it I went.

Finally, the finish line was in sight and I turned up the engine as much as i could and raced past several people to finish strong.

well earned

Final time: 1:02:44 - about a 10:08 mile 49th out of 161 in my age group.  All in all I'm super happy about this time. I could only imagine how much better I would've done if only the first 2 miles weren't uphill and if I hadn't walked twice. This time far exceeded my expectation.  :)

While I swore to myself I would never do this one again, I have to tell ya - I really would. It was fun.

XO
Jen

Personal photo's courtesy of Angela's Facebook page ;) Thanks, Ang!!

Surf City Race Recap

First of all, I was super excited to run Surf City.

In fact, in a small way, I owe the Surf City half marathon a huge debt of gratitude because it was one of the prime movers in getting me to take up running in the first place.

You see it was right around this time in 2010 that my friend Angela posted about her medal and accomplishment in running 13.1 in this race.

Angela talked about the medal and her accomplishment on FB and I marveled how it would be cool to be able to do such a thing someday.  At that point I was about 40 pounds into my weight loss journey (with still having 50 to lose) and thought it was an impossibility. I mean, me run? Not for 13 seconds, never mind 13 miles. Ha.

But it was the perfect storm - between her pictures, my kind of wanting to do it and my making a "life long bucket list of goals" more about the back story here… and in any case, just a few days later (my bloganiversary is tomorrow in fact) I was signed up for my very first half.

So back to Surf City.

I wasn't sure I'd ever run this one even tho it looks awesome and beautiful.  Primarily the issue was that it happens on Super Bowl Sunday every year and that's pretty much a holiday in my family. Being away on Super Bowl Sunday is worse to hubby than being away for his birthday or our anniversary but somehow I was able to finagle it this year. (If the Jets were in the big game, however, that would be grounds for divorce… unluckily/luckily, the Jets remain tried and true - and out of the Superbowl…)

Anyway I made it happen and got out here for it.

The day before we went to the Free Wheelchair Mission dinner. Angela raises money for them every year and they are the main charity tied to the race. It was a beautiful dinner. The Free Wheelchair Mission raises money to provide wheel chairs for people around the world. Their mission is to literally "lift" people up and off the ground. In poorer countries, if you have a disability that affects your mobility you are literally forced to drag along on your hands. It's quite touching what these folks do.

Lin, one of the recent wheel chair
recipients.

At the dinner Josh George, a primo wheel chair racer athlete who's taken the gold in event after event for the USA was the key note speaker. He's heading to London in August.

He was awesome and even let me take a picture with him:

with big time athlete Joshua George - awesome guy

I can't think of anything more motivational or inspiring pre-race than remembering how lucky we are that we GET to run and use our feet, legs, and heart to move.  These healthy legs are such a gift!

After dinner, I careful laid out my race-day clothing and we hit the sack.

4:45 AM rolled around quickly and we were up and raring to go - we strolled downstairs, waited for the shuttle and off we went.

Ready to go!!

As we shuffled around the starting line - I had to pee a million times - but I'm glad I got it out of my system pre-race because this was the first race that I didn't have to stop at all for a porta-visit during the run! Yay. I'm a big girl now!

So we were off. I felt good and I was rarin' to go. I kept trying to pace myself as to not start to fast.  The first two miles - i felt a little stiff. Probably from the traveling and I was on my feet a lot leading up to race day, unfortunately. By mile four, I was in a groove and feeling great. I definitely was feeling awesome.

It was a pretty place to run.  I kept my pace, enjoyed my music, and had my gels and beans in a good rhythm.  I skipped the sports drink they were serving because I'd never had it and didn't want to risk a San Diego repeat.  I grabbed water thru every stop but ran thru them - never walking.

I couldn't remember my Jersey Shore half time but wasn't thinking I was gonna beat it. That was my previous PR race. I was mid-marathon training at that point and long runs were 16 -18 miles. In any case, my goal this time was to finish this one under 2:30.

So I ran, and pushed, and ran. Around mile 6 or 7 I started to get annoying side stitches.  Nothing too terrible but annoying - eh, I've run thru worse - I shook it off and kept going. The 10th and 11th miles I was definitely starting to feel tired and my legs  were starting to feel pretty fatigued.  But I was in the homestretch!  I like to pour it on in the last mile and did all I could to pick up the pace.

I love the finish chute - the crowds, the excitement, that big beautiful "FINISH" sign. Ahhhh - I crossed the mat. I thought I came in around 2:24 or so - Yippee! I well beat my 2:30 goal. I couldn't exactly remember my Jersey Shore half time so I looked it up: I did the Jersey Shore in 2:24:47 (11:01 min mile…)   Another medal on the books!  :) 

sweetest medal

As far as PR, it was going to be close. My Nike + was a little off (actually was reading 13.3 miles for a 10:48 min mile… it's kinder than my mother) so I was going to have to hold my breath and wait for the chip time results… When I went online I was psyched to see:

HELLO PR!

YIPPEE! 2:23:47 A PR by mere seconds… And I broke out of the 11min mile avg - something so pretty excited about 10:59 ;) I'm also pretty proud of the split time as you can see on the bottom left.

A great race overall.

Me and Ang after the race!

I would definitely recommend Surf City and hope to do it again next year (that is if the Jets don't make it to the Super Bowl. Hey. Stop laughing. It could happen… ;) 

XO

Jen

Atlantic City half marathon recap: Born to Run!

Hello out there.

Sorry this blog has been so neglected lately. As mentioned in my last, 'oh crap' post things have been hectic, I've been massively overloaded and finding time to just sit and blog is a luxury that I just couldn't get to.

Ah.

But with all that said -- I'm finding the time now to tell you all about last week's half marathon in Atlantic City.

I went into this one much more calm than usual. I knew I could make the distance even though I haven't run quite as much as I wanted to. I also assumed that I wouldn't be as fast as my last half because I was in the midst of full-marathon training during my last half and by the time of that half, I was racking up 15 and 16 mile long runs…

I was approaching this one as a long run + fun because it was an actual race.  Last fall I ran a half in 3hrs. During marathon training I did it in 2:24 or something. I was hoping for around 2:45.

Because it was AC and the pressure was off, I went down with my husband (first time in more than four years both of us had been away from our 4 year old son!) We had a lovely dinner and cocktails. We walked around all day and I wasn't as 'day-before' strict with food and stuff that I usually am. I was just enjoying the ride.

Because the race started at 8AM and our hotel was just a few blocks away, it was a nice, non-anxious morning. I woke up, got dressed and strolled to Starbucks (which was still closed!) but opened very shortly at 7AM.

The old guys of AC were very nice. Three different older gentlemen complimented me for running that day, told me I looked gorgeous and one said, "Wow you really look like a runner." I laughed and pointed to my bib saying, "well this might help."

After loading up on Starbuck's "perfect oatmeal" and a large coffee, I headed to the start line located on the boardwalk in front of Bally's.

I began to eye the bibs of the full marathoners and felt immediate twinges of jealousy that I wasn't wearing the red 26.2'ers bibs. But my own yellow 13.1 had to do.

So 8AM came and went. Hello? Why isn't anyone running? Not sure why but we didn't get underway until a few minutes after. It wasn't as many racers as the Long Branch one or the RNR ones so there were no waves. I lined myself behind the 5 hr. marathon pacer person and got to running.

I felt good and happy and strong. I was just running. I wasn't paying attention to time and enjoyed the cool weather and ocean views.  It was very windy and that was a slight issue. There were moments where the gusts of wind threatened to knock me off my feet! Sand stung my eyes and when we were running head into it, it felt as though we were running in place. I let go of doing it in 2:45 and just resigned to do the best I could.

Of-course I had the obligatory potty break right before the 6 mile mark and that knocked a few minutes off.

Running, running, feeling good.

The last few miles 8-13 I started to lose the jealousy for the full marathoners and feel a little jealousy of the 10k'ers :) It felt long enough and the last 3 miles (back on the board walk) just felt like forever.

And funny thing, it was the Atlantic City boardwalk. There was no roped off areas for runners and the rest of AC just operated 'business as usual' so as were running and sucking down Gu - there were people wandering out of casinos, buying their boardwalk junk food and smoking their cigarettes. It was a fun but bizarre racing experience.

As I was in my last mile, I heard a bunch of sirens and hoopla behind me and turned to see the guy who was to win the marathon whiz by! Crazy to me how fast that dude ran and exciting.

As I came down the shoot, I heard my husband call my name - he started running down the side with me and screaming, "finish strong! you look great!" That was great. He's usually not at my races because he's watching our child and there was something so fun and exciting about that. I loved it.

I finished and looked down at my Nike+ 2:26 (I did pause it for potty break) What!? That's a way better time than I expected! I think the AC official time was 2:29 half and 1:11 10K (with the potty break before both.) YAY!  That's pretty good, especially with so much wind and head wind. I was pretty darn happy.

only in AC: the medal is actually a bottle opener - that explains the velcro ribbon!

So I got handed my victory beer, toasted my good fortune and have a fourth half marathon under my belt. (5th race if you count my full mary.) Now to start thinking about the next one…

XO
Jen

I am a marathoner! Rock N Roll San Diego race recap.

First of all, I would like to say thank you to you guys in the running community. It never ceases to amaze me how generous this community is with support, advice, love, shoulders to cry on and everything else in between.  I truly don't believe I would've gotten to this point without you all.  It truly took a village to raise this runner…

A huge thank you especially to Lesley at Racing It Off. Lesley you are wonderful. Beautiful inside and out. Your generosity of giving a place to "some girl on the internet" to sleep and having this experience with you was absolutely priceless and I'll always remember the entire thing as one of the highlights of my life. Thank you, thank you.

Sherry, many thanks to you too. I loved getting to know you and had a fabulous time.

jen - lesley - sherry - Jion AKA "frankie" ;)

Now on to the race:

I landed on Saturday and as soon as wheels were down and Lesley had made the pickup we were off to the Expo. The place was a mob-scene and I was starving so we pretty much made the bib pickup and headed out after a little looking around.  The rest of the day, we took easy. I even had a "celebrity sighting" at the hotel! No other than The Boring Runner himself, Adam! I was so excited to see him but unfortunately didn't get a chance to chat or get a picture with him. (If you don't read his blog, you should. He's a talented runner/writer and don't let the name fool you - so funny and awesome.)   

Then, we got all of our race stuff set up and ready to go.

We visited Little Italy and found a delicious little Italian restaurant to carb-load at.  

The next morning we were up and off to the race by 4:30 AM. 

Got in my corral which was an embarrassing 32 out of 34 corrals for full marathoners, but we all have to start somewhere. My est. time of arrival at finish was around 5:45 - which I was pretty confident I could nail.  (And probably even do a wee bit better…. but.)

Only 31 more corrals to go!

So after waiting for 31 corrals to go before me, finally it was our turn - And off we went.  The weather was perfect. I was feeling excited and optimistic in-spite of a weird cramp in the arch of my foot (before I even started running!) and the fact that I had lost a GU .5 miles into my run. Oh and for some reason my Nike+ started and then stopped so I got ripped off of a few miles of running… 

Kind of a crazy start to a race but I wasn't gonna let anything break-a my stride…

The first 5 miles were glorious, I was happy and feeling good. And then, OH NO. What the hell!?  Why does my tummy feel so icky??? 

TMI alert. If you're not a runner or a parent you may want to turn away now.  You've been warned.

I had just taken my first GU and all of a sudden I needed a potty. Now. And the "please don't poop my pants" inner chant started. My stomach was revolting. Was it the Cyto-max that the race had in place of the gatorade I was used to? The pasta from the night before? A gu gone bad? The morning coffee brewed in that little hotel room pot or just the stomach flu coming in at a bad time -- I don't know but it was one of the worst things that could happen.  Let's just say that I made BFF's with every porta-potty stop along the route - I lost count after visiting around SEVEN of them. Fantastic. Running made it way worse and this was upsetting though I tried to keep my spirits as high as possible. I ran when I could, jogged/walked when I had to. 

Right past the half way point, I even ran a block off the race course to visit a 7-11 to buy a travel packet of immodium. The teenaged clerk gave me a funny look and I kind of shot him a look that said "F" you in return and headed back out. For the record, the medicine didn't really help but it was worth the try.

Whoaa! We're half way there! -Jovi

No matter what, sometimes sh*t happens. Uh, sometimes literally and I was determined to still enjoy this day and make it the best day ever, dammit. My legs felt good, my mind appreciating as much as possible and I told my tummy that I wouldn't let it rob me of this day.  Once I started, there was never a doubt in my mind that I would cross that finish line. Lesley even promised to come back and drag me over the line if she had to- so I had faith I would get there.

I ran/jogged/plodded/walked on only 1 1/2 GU's and a half packet of sport beans. Not ideal fueling. I kept drinking water and took a little of salt but even water hitting my belly sent the wave of cramps and another "please don't poop my pants" awful feeling but I knew that I had to at very least hydrate if nothing else.

Right around mile 15 when I was feeling particularly ick there was an angel sent from heaven in the form of an old friend I know from a job we both worked at years ago. I knew she was a runner (in fact she did the goofy challenge at Disney this past year) and TNT coach but never thought I'd see her on the other side of the country during a marathon.  At just the right time, I looked up to see Alison and it was like the happiest moment ever. I didn't know she was going to be there and she didn't know I was running. I saw her and screamed her name. She looked at me and I could tell she didn't recognize me.  Alison hasn't seen me in 65 pounds or so. When I identified myself, she almost fell over and her warm hug and "OMG you've lost so much weight, you're running the full!?) and other enthusiasms gave me so much needed energy - it was better than anything.  I'm so grateful that i wasn't looking the other way, or at my feet or whatever else that I do when I run and saw her. I needed that SO BAD.

At mile 18 I helped a girl who looked like she was going to die. She was panting. People were just running by her and I felt like she needed at least a kind word. I reluctantly gave her the half of my remaining sport beans and found her some water.  She was cramping bad and didn't look great. She was TNT person so someone came to help her and a medic came - then I was on my way again.

My tummy never got better and I spent a "blissful" 21.2 miles running with a rumbling tummy and underfueled but what are you gonna do? 

When I hit mile 25 I started to get choked up. I was gonna make it. I did it. I faced down no fuel and tummy troubles, previous injuries, foiled running plans, an imperfect training regime and making friends with 50 porto's along the way and I was going to complete my first marathon.  I thought of my friend Sara and her recent journey and her mom - I thought of Lesley and Jason who've been great, great support. I thought of Emz and her 24 hour treadmill run, I thought of my darling husband and son and I thanked God that I made it the whole 26.2 without pooping my pants.  

I came down the homestretch and ran that last mile. Finish strong. I saw Lesley cheering me on -- when I crossed, I smiled big for the camera (as Jason suggests) and then broke down into an ugly cry. I was so happy.

26.2 and still smiling

It was the best day but the worse "race."  Well. I beat Al Roker's time but my final time? A disappointing but it is what it is, 6:20. Boo.  I am disappointed. Mainly because I know that if I didn't stop every mile and could've run what I was planning to, I would've done way better. But, I am proud that I didn't quit and kept my spirits up in the face of the troubles. Plus, the upside to all that stopping/walking nonsense, I never hit a wall, never really had leg issues and it was a good experience in that regard. 

And while I'm a little creaky today, I'm really no more creaky than the day after any long run. I feel like I really didn't give it my all if I'm feeling this "good." I know I didn't (even with very good excuse) and that bums me out. 

I am definitely having the post-marathon day blues. All that training, anticipation, bitching, moaning, dreaming, fearing, looking-forward to - gone. Done. Over. Do I dare sign up for another? Oh I want to with every cell in my body. But we'll see. For now, it's just we'll see.

XO

Jen