My First Marathon

I am so excited to say.. I did it!! I ran my very first FULL marathon, and I feel like a rockstar. With an expected 4 hours and 30 minutes finishing time, my actual time of 4:19 was pretty darn fantastic. Yes, indeedy. My running buddy and I drove up Saturday to putz around Bellingham. What a beautiful city. Carb loading took place at this very off-the-beaten-path pizza shop we discovered. Dinner was pizza and IPA. I wasn’t going to have a beer, but then I thought, what the heck. I can celebrate a little bit. Besides beer has carbs. That’s right, this future RD is getting a stellar education in nutrition.

After dinner we vegged out in the hotel and watched Chopped. I think its my favorite new cooking reality show, but regardless of getting to bed early I couldn’t sleep. I was too excited. Sprung out of bed at 5:20am and tried to force myself to eat breakfast: apple and a Powerade. We were feeling pretty chipper..

 As for the race, if you’re looking for a scenic run in the northwest, this is it. It beats Seattle and Portland hands down. We started along the bay, looking out at the San Juan Islands across the water. Moving inland everything was lush and green (and wet). Some of the route was a bit of trail running as we ventured through beautiful wooded areas, and even ran part of the boardwalk (slippery). It was still early so there were fishermen out on the water, thick fog hovering over. I can’t say enough about the beauty. Thank goodness I didn’t pack my Blackberry. I would have been stopping to take pictures for sure. I took a fellow runner’s advice though and ran with just one headphone in so that I could jog and chat with people along the way. That was a great idea. I met so many people, some from the northwest, some who had flown in from all over. Most of them were veteran marathoners so we chatted about past races, training strategies, future races, our undeniable love of running. Before I knew it I was at mile 18. Seriously, I don’t know where the time went. Here are a few highlights as I remember them:

Mile 1: Beautiful day. I could run forever. So glad it isn’t raining.

Mile 2: It’s raining. Oh yes it is. I kinda like it.

Mile 3: It’s raining so hard that parts of the road are flooded. My feet are going to get wrinkly, and that’s going to make for some gnarly blisters. Battle wounds. Yesssss!!! I’m a survivor.

Mile 4: I love Fergie. So glad I charged my dead ipod last night. Woot woot.

Mile 5-9: Met a runner from Greenlake. This is her sixth marathon in a year!! Now I’m even more encouraged.

Mile 10: Must. Find. Bathroom. (I blame the goo)

Mile 11-14: Met a runner from Auburn. First time marathoner. Total rockstar.

Mile 18: Oh my gosh I’m almost done!!! My body feels great. I rocked this!!

Mile 22: What mile is this? I have to be almost done. Still feeling good. Run faster.

Mile 23: I got a “that’s the biggest smile I’ve seen all day” compliment. Now I’m really pushing.. While I sing along to ”My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard..” Don’t ask. I have no idea how that got on my ipod.

Mile 24: My legs don’t hurt. My legs don’t hurt. My legs don’t hurt. I need a beer.

Mile 25: Oh my goodness my legs hurt!!!!! Are we there yet?? Forget the beer. I need a bubble bath, a massage and a glass of red wine. In fact, make that two.

Mile 26: Sprint for the finish line! High fiiiiiive!!

The end. I can’t tell you how amazing it felt to sprint across that finish line. Running is such a peaceful sport, but part of me just wanted to rip and roar to  the very end. It was such an incredible moment. I ran a marathon. And I can’t wait to do it again. I read a t-shirt that made me laugh out loud. It said “My sport is what your sport does for punishment.. and I love it”.  How do you feel about that?