With all that time spent training, by the last two weeks before the race, I began thinking what did I sign up for? I remember telling Mitch during one of our last long training runs "I don't even like running right now" and named one of our maps on mapmyrun "My horrible idea." I was a bit negative before the race; I think it was just nerves.
Race weekend came and I turned it around. We went to the WPS kids run. The girls LOVED the chance to run in their first race. They cherish the medals and wore them all weekend long. It was hard for Aila to understand why she couldn't wear it to school on Monday morning. It calmed my nerves a lot to see the finish line and run a small portion (0.62 miles) the day before. We enjoyed our free tickets to the pasta dinner at Lambeau Saturday night and were all set for race day.
On race day we made it there in the morning with plenty of time, did zero warm up or stretching (why do you need to add on a mile warm up before you run 13 or 26 miles?), and made our way to the start. For some reason we had "preferred start" bibs. I'm not that fast. I didn't deserve one. I have a feeling the person who registered lied to say that I ran at the same pace that he did. It was intimidating for me to be in there with runners who are much better than me. I would rather start at the back of the pack with people my own pace or slower and work my way up instead of being passed by thousands of people. Despite this, the first 5 miles were good. I kept a 9 minute mile pace. It went down hill from there. I knew a lot of people who would be in the crowds from mile 5-9, so I was a bit distracted and combined with some inclines, slowed down. Knowing that these people were there cheering kept me going though! Thankfully what goes up must come down and the last few miles were down hill or level.
As we made it into the Lambeau parking lot, we got passed by a wheel chair racer and then inside Lambeau was passed by the winning marathoner completing his full marathon. We finished in 2:19. This was about 4 minutes off of my goal for finishing in 2:15, but I was able to accomplish my main goal of running the entire thing.
Unfortunately, we have almost no pictures of ourselves before, during, or after the marathon. We didn't think about it before because I ran with my ipod shuffle rather than my phone. During the race pictures didn't quite turn out (however, I have a lot of pictures of my daughters cheering people on). And then after the race, we had a hard time meeting up with my parents so when we finally did, taking a picture didn't cross my mind. Hopefully I can find some online so that I don't have to pay for the official ones just for a little evidence.
I will admit that I was quite sore for the next few days. It was the worst whenever I went down steps. Mitch said that the noise was too loud during the entire thing so that he didn't have to hear my squeak. I am left with a pretty disgusting toe that has a huge blood blister at the top of it and a nail that really needed to just fall off.
One of my biggest concerns prior to surgery was what it would feel like to have an implant in me. Would I ever feel so comfortable with it that I forget that it is there? Yes, at 10 miles in forcing my legs to keep going, my fake boobs didn't cross my mind at all.
As we made it into the Lambeau parking lot, we got passed by a wheel chair racer and then inside Lambeau was passed by the winning marathoner completing his full marathon. We finished in 2:19. This was about 4 minutes off of my goal for finishing in 2:15, but I was able to accomplish my main goal of running the entire thing.
Unfortunately, we have almost no pictures of ourselves before, during, or after the marathon. We didn't think about it before because I ran with my ipod shuffle rather than my phone. During the race pictures didn't quite turn out (however, I have a lot of pictures of my daughters cheering people on). And then after the race, we had a hard time meeting up with my parents so when we finally did, taking a picture didn't cross my mind. Hopefully I can find some online so that I don't have to pay for the official ones just for a little evidence.
I will admit that I was quite sore for the next few days. It was the worst whenever I went down steps. Mitch said that the noise was too loud during the entire thing so that he didn't have to hear my squeak. I am left with a pretty disgusting toe that has a huge blood blister at the top of it and a nail that really needed to just fall off.
One of my biggest concerns prior to surgery was what it would feel like to have an implant in me. Would I ever feel so comfortable with it that I forget that it is there? Yes, at 10 miles in forcing my legs to keep going, my fake boobs didn't cross my mind at all.
:)
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