2011/2015
This pic cracks me up!
I LOVED training for this marathon...if you followed my posts on Facebook you know we trained in every weather condition possible, except heat and wind! I was so confident going into this marathon and was pretty much "giddy" about it - I could not wait! I made sure to take care of myself, stayed healthy, stretched, even followed all the rules during taper week - I was ready!
Trey had meetings scheduled in Myrtle Beach on Friday so we drove down on Thursday afternoon. After Trey's meetings on Friday we went to the expo to pick up our race packets and waited for our friends to get there. There seems to always be some type of race story when it comes to us - somehow Trey signed up twice for this marathon (but I know we were only charged once or I would have caught it) and his nickname on his bib was Viva Myrtle Beach - ha!ha! We thought for sure Sharon Keiser had played a trick on him when they were signing up last year but she swears she didn't do it!!
I've always loved this race because it starts early...6:30 a.m. We met in the lobby around 5:55 and walked to the start. It was very cold but perfect temperature to run!
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| Sharon was injured so ended up doing the half marathon . |
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| A few race day jitters but we are so ready! |
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| Can you pick out the FL girls:) |
We make it to the start with a few minutes to spare and line up!
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| All smiles & ready to ROCK! |
Just in time for a pre-start selfie & we are off!!
Five and a half months of training and 467 miles later we are FINALLY here!!! The first half of the race goes great...we ditched our Goodwill sweatshirts pretty soon after we started. Got a few comments on our cute race shirts because if you live in SC you MUST have a monogrammed shirt to wear on race day!!
We saw Todd and the gang at the cut off point where you turn off if you are doing the half or stay straight (& straight & straight) if you are doing the full. I remember thinking that I can't believe we have already made it to this point. We ditched the cute long sleeves & gloves and headed out. Thrilled at the way we felt:) I made sure to point out to Joanna where I pretty much hit the wall during my last marathon that I ran with Trey and was super confident that I was blazing right through it, mentally & physically-woohoo! THEN...
Around mile 19 the wind slapped us right in the face. Wind makes my nose run out of control and it seriously zaps all the energy that I have! UGH...I turn into such a whiny baby, just ask any of my friends who have been so lucky to experience this:) For me the race went pretty much downhill (or uphill) from there. The wind had zapped the fun out of my day. We actually felt great physically we just couldn't seem to move forward...I thought each step you take was suppose to get you closer to the finish line!!!
It was AWESOME seeing the gang again about mile 21...we complained to them, still smiling the whole time, and told them hopefully we would see them by midnight! We were running on a paved trail around this time and was surrounded by trees thinking surely this would be a wind blocker - NOPE! So once we got off the trail, we decided to stop for a minute & try to regroup...I knew Trey would have finished by now and would be looking for us soon...but he wasn't going to be seeing us anytime soon!
For some reason this goofy picture lifted our spirits.
Somehow we FINALLY made it to the FINISH!
You know me, I can't just run like a normal person to the finish line - I must stop to explain!
This is me telling Trey, Keiser & Sharon that we CRACKED!!
My favorite running buddy!!
After looking at these pics, we don't look like we cracked. I told you we just kept smiling. We had a cute lady at the end tell us we acted like we were having a blast out there...I'm not sure I would totally agree with her!
Peanut butter cookie, kettle corn & a beer!
FIVE sounds like a good number to retire from the marathon distance. I know don't ever say never BUT, I can tell you that it will be many years from now because I need to forget again exactly how far that really is to run. My marathon times are spread all across the board...I guess at the end of the day it is 26.2 miles and its hard to fully prepare yourself for what can/might happen!
Marathon #1 - 5:17
Marathon #2 - 4:21
Marathon #3 - 4:23
Marathon #4 - 4:09
Marathon #5 - 4:37
These are spread out over at least a 10 year period. I'm pretty sure I probably said "never again" after each of them. I know for sure there was a couple of years break between the first and second.
There was definitely no "Runner's High" during this race...I never felt bad (actually felt pretty good) - we just couldn't seem to find the Finish Line!!
I'm looking forward to taking the next two weeks off from any strenuous exercise and from the looks of the weather it is the perfect time to do it! Thanks again everyone for all of your support & now go sign up for a MARATHON!!
