marathon #4 = happiest long run!

Well 2 marathons in 2 weeks was successfully completed. The two could not have been more different!

It was still dark when we started but the streets were well lit and the sun was just starting to rise enough to cast a little light. My son decided last minute to run the half. We were a little over halfway in the start line. A sign read 1/4 mile to the start so walking that was a nice little warm up. The crowd of runners flowed very nicely. By mile 2, I was sweating. It was humid (90%) and warm (68).

not far from the finish :)

There were water stations every 2 miles and I stopped at every single one, alternating gatorade at one and water at the other (when I would take my gels). This was the first race I didn't carry my hand held water bottle. I felt very free! I packed only 3 Roctane GU's on me (Island Nectar which is soooo yummy and Cherry Lime which was good too). GU is not my favorite, but I used it since this is what the race provided and I did not want to carry all of my gels. To restock my pockets, I grabbed 2 more at one stop (around mile 8), and one more at the second station (around mile 18). This worked great! In fact, the race provided almost every GU flavor and GU Roctane which I thought was awesome!

At mile 4, my son decided to go ahead of me and run his own race. At mile 7, the half marathoners split off and the crowd immediately felt small. There were 9100+ half runners that finished, and 1800+ marathoners that finished. I thought I read that 14K signed up so I'm very curious to see how many DNF. I say that with much empathy because it.was.HOT. The race director sent out a few emails prior to the race to keep us informed of how to handle the heat since no one was really acclimated to the heat. A lot of people struggled from the middle miles and onward. I saw a lot of people bent over either feeling sick, exhausted from the heat, or just flat out tired. It was rough. When I'm really hot, I can hear my blood pressure/heart beat in my ears. I know that sounds weird but it's the only way I can describe it. This is when I must back down. 

my face says i'm glad to be done!

I didn't set my watch for any pace alerts. I just wanted to run by feel. I kept an avg 10:30 pace the first half, walking through water stops. I picked up the pace after the half point, and took advantage of every downhill. :) By mile 19 though, I had to slow down and took about 18 minutes of walk breaks total from there to the end (I hit lap on my watch to keep track of how much I walked just out of curiosity). I was overheated as was everyone else and the hills were rough those last 8 miles. I knew I was on target for a 4:40 to 4:42 pace but at that point let it go. If the weather was cooler, then it may have happened! I was so happy to know I almost had it and did so well with the heat and hills. The temps were brutal and there was no shade to be found. I just focused on seeing my family at the finish and crossed the line at 4:57 - glad to be done!

a race that has chocolate milk = A+

Even though I coated my heels with Vaseline, I have two new blisters, a tight left ITB, and a tight right quad today. But overall, I feel good. My blister from the Albany marathon is still there. It's deep, and dark, and my man thinks I need to have a doctor take care of it.  Even though I loathe the way they look on my calves, I wore my Zensah calf sleeves and my calves never bothered me once. They don't even bother me today.  And as challenging as this race was, I loved every part of it. The wonderful volunteers were amazing and so encouraging! Neighbors were handing out bags of ice (I stuck one on my neck under a strap and it stayed until it melted a few miles later). A neighbor used a garden hose, spraying runners around mile 22. We were all so grateful for that! There were a few sprayers along the last half and at the finish. I walked through each one and soaked with sweat and water at the finish! 

I saw a beautiful sunrise, gorgeous southern homes, grass turning green, birds everywhere, blooming trees and flowers. I counted my blessings one by one, prayed a lot, and for the other runners around me to forge forward, and ran with a smile on my face just about the whole way, filled with joy and gratitude that I can put one foot in front of the other and do what I love doing - running!

Oh and my son... he ran a new PR!  I tell him he should train and see how much better he'll get!