Marathon #1.... and 2 and 3

This is overdue I know. Since the marathon I have been busy recovering and signing up for more marathons and running. LOTS AND LOTS of running.  Running is my  favorite.

 The morning of my first marathon I was scared. REALLY scared. I woke up before the butt crack of dawn and taped my legs and back up, ate my carby breakfast and gave my children a kiss for good luck.  My coach looked at me that morning as we waited to go to the corals and told me to calm down, go out slow and relax. I wanted to cry, hug her and I'm pretty sure my lip was quivering as she talked to me. I know my whole body was shaking with nerves.   We peed a thousand times before heading out to the corals and then we peed again for good measure lol.  We did NOT want to stop. We had an under 5 hour goal and we needed ever second we could get.

At the start they played ACDC Thunderstruck to get you nice and pumped.  I barely heard it but it did register.  As we creeped up to the starting line slowly from the back of the pack my excitement grew. I needed to run. I hadn't run in 3 days. I NEEDED IT.

We started out good and paced ourselves safely throughout the race. We were trying to keep it around 11 minute miles.

The first 13 miles went fairly quickly. There was lots of crowd support which helped the time pass without you really noticing it. I think I gave a few strangers a sweaty hug and lots of high fives.  I had friend around mile 13 waiting with orange slices, crazy signs and tshirts made with #beatjared on them. I cant tell you how much it means to see familiar faces when you are out there running for that long.

 After mile 13 it was a lonely road. There aren't as many crazy people out there willing to run 26.2 miles apparently.  By mile 14 and 15 things were starting to hurt. The hardest stretch was ahead of us too. I felt like miles 17-22 were the worst. There was some incline and a lot of reaching deep to get through these miles. At one point a poor man asked me if we had passed the 20 mile marker yet. I didn't have the heart to tell him we still had half a mile to go.   I was just like almost buddy!

Jill and I ran together nearly the entire race, which I didn't really expect to happen. I thought she'd run off and leave me (heart your face Jill). Around mile 24 I thought we'd finish together but then she started to fall back.  I kind of sorta, not really, felt bad, but I ended up running ahead. One of my coaches, Meg found me around this time and ran the rest of the way in with me. I pushed hard those last 2.2 miles. Meg kept telling me, this is the last hill, I promise.  LIES MEG, ALL LIES! lol  I saw my family as I sprinted in to the finish and I stopped to give them hugs before going in. I finishing at 4:56. I had completely lost all creativity with my finish pose so they got me throwing my hands up giving the peace sign. I have no idea what I was thinking. I wasn't. That's all I have.

 When I stopped moving..... OMG! The pain. The pain was horrible.   I made it around to give hugs to my friends and family before hobbling off to the car and cleaning up a bit before going to the Columbus Running Company's after marathon party.

So.... what does one do after running their first marathon?  They go and sign up for 2 more  immediately after. That and set in a tub of epsom salt for 3 days straight.   I will be running The Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach on my 36th birthday. (March 20th) and then 5 weeks later running The Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati.   I may die.  Please send help after marathon #3.  I will need carried around for a week.