So I ran a marathon....

Oops. It's September. Slacking much? Sorry for the slight...ok, giant...delay in writing about my marathon experience. Life has really thrown me for a loop. Busy, crazy, stressful, insane. Good words to describe it. But I'm writing now.......and.....

I ran a fucking MARATHON. 26.2 MILES.  

WHAT?!

I was always overweight and lazy and unmotivated and unhappy and miserable and a host of other things that do NOT equate to "Marathon Runner".

So, I was going to do a whole play by play like many do for their marathons (especially first marathons), but I'll keep it simple. The morning of the marathon I was nervous. So very nervous. And excited. And worried and scared and happy.  It felt like a dream.  

Unfortunately, marathon day in Duluth was uncharacteristically hot. Even standing at the start, I was sweating in the sun.  I knew then that I had to let my hopes of a 4:30 go. And surprisingly, I was totally at peace with that. 

By mile 13, things were rough. People were dropping out, both by choice and not. The warning flags turned black...extreme heat.  I made a conscious decision to really slow down and take it easy, including walk breaks and taking in as much extra fluid as I could. I dumped water on my head. I stopped to take pictures. I really focused on staying safe and enjoying the experience as much as possible. 

I ended up finishing in 5:30(ish).  An hour slower than my training had me on par for. Guess what? I truly didn't care. I had friends who had to pull out of both the marathon and even the half marathon. I saw runners down, people puking, ambulances.  So the fact that I finished in 5:30, feeling exhausted and spent but...good...well, that was fantastic. 

My legs were sore for about 3-4 days. I was moving slow...AKA doing the "marathon shuffle". But then one morning I woke up and it was just magically all better. I was pleasantly surprised, as I was thinking it would take 1-2 weeks. 

And so here I am. I'm a marathoner. 

Will I do it again? Yes. I hope so. For now, I have a half marathon coming up in 3 weeks. More on that in another post. 

Here are some pictures of marathon weekend.