MARATHON!

I did it! This is the stuff dreams are made of. Nightmare-ish type dreams, yes, but dreams nonetheless. But nightmare or not, I am officially a marathon finisher. It sounded kind of anticlimactic to me before the race to be a marathon "finisher." But now I feel like I've really earned that title. Here are a few notes about the race, because I'm too tired to put the whole long, boring story on here (you're welcome):

The race started in Aptos, CA (10 miles east of Santa Cruz) in the forest of Nisene Marks

• Elevation gain: 2500' in first 12 miles
• Then you run back down...that part was great
• You run on the Aptos Creek fire road, which is pretty well packed down and honestly not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I was expecting brutal hills like in the Muir Woods 25k, but this was milder than I thought.
• It was also longer than I thought. The last 5 miles were pretty tough, but I ended up running neck-in-neck with another girl and we pushed each other for a few of the toughest miles I've ever run.
• I talked to a guy on the way up the mountain who has run 27 marathons. This was his 6th time running this particular marathon. People are insane. He told me I was also insane for picking this particular race for my first marathon. I agreed with him.
• I never had any crazy goals for this race like "I'm not going to stop the whole time," but it turns out I didn't stop the whole time. I did pause at one aid station, but only because they tricked me. I thought I was at the turn-around, but I still had 1/4 mile to go.
  
• My best hope for a finishing time was 5 hours. That was a guess based on my other long runs and on the crazy elevation gain in this run. I am pleased to say that I finished in 4:43:??. The only thing that bugs me is that the guy who finished right in front of me kept stopping and walking up the hills. I passed him probably four times and he still ended up beating me. He even stopped to take a phone call in the last two miles. I was too tired by that point to pass him out of spite. I never thought my spite would fail me, but there you go.
• Reece was the only baby at the race. Paul was awesome and pushed the stroller 2 miles up the road to meet me and run the last two miles with me. He got some applause of his own while approaching the finish line (I sent him ahead of me because Reece kept wanting me to hold him), and it is fair to say that while I ran a marathon, Paul finished the marathon.
  
• While looting the food table afterward an older man (who was amazing) asked me, "You're the mom, right?" Then said, "Great job." Sweet! I got bonus points just for having a baby at the race. What that guy doesn't know is that a) Reece is almost 15 months old, and b) I have never EVER pushed Reece in the jogging stroller while running. Way too much work and my hat's off to women who do it.
  
• In the end, it was an amazing experience to train for, and run, this marathon (and I can now say that honestly because it's DONE!). I learned so much about how strong I can be and how to push myself beyond my limits, again and again. So if you're thinking, "Maybe I should run a marathon?" You're crazy. If you're thinking, "I should do a 10k, or go hiking in the mountains, or learn how to unicycle," then maybe you're less crazy and you should do it. I don't think I will unicycle any time soon. I have no hand/eye/butt coordination. This is turning out to be much less inspiring than I hoped. So maybe I'm not a very inspirational person, but you know who is? That guy who ran 27 marathons. Think about him and then go do something cool.
  

Kinda sad that even at the beginning of the race I don't look like I'm running (see above picture). It's the new trend in marathon running: don't actually run.

The buffet afterward (the only real reason we run, right?). The girl behind me helped push me through miles 21-23. Then she took off and beat me by several minutes. Dang.

My feet look nasty. They were so dirty and I didn't trip, nor did I run through any puddles. Just running on dirt.



First video is me running at mile 24. Like I said, the new trend is not actually running. I am sooooo slow.


Crossing the finish line. Yahoo!


Running necessity.