Entertaining Facts According to the Results

• The oldest woman who finished was 99 years old. She beat me by 5 minutes. :)
• The oldest man who finished was also 99 years old. He finished in 2 hrs 45 minutes.
• The youngest women were 5 14-year-old girls, all of whom beat me. Their times ranged from 4:13 to 6:26.
• The youngest men were 7 14-year-old boys, all of whom beat me. Their times ranged from 4:29 to 6:50.
• The actual fastest person to finish was a handcycler (hand wheelchair) who finished in 1:22. Amazing!
• The fastest wheelchair participant finished in 1:59. Again amazing!
• There were 93 participants from Costa Rica, where we honeymooned last year.
• There were 107 from England, 1 from Ethiopia, 1 from Poland, 1 servicemember each from Iraq and Afghanistan, and 1 from Swaziland. (There were lots of foreign participants, this was just a snippet.)
• There were 6 people from Clemson, SC. 439 from all of SC.
• There were 53 people from Lorton, including me. 10 of them did not finish. I was the last person to finish from Lorton. The fastest was in 2:51. I just realized that Ft. Belvoir is in Lorton, so lots of those were probably Army people.

Results!

If you'll notice, I was NOT last, not even in my division. Thanks to the other youngish woman who came in behind me. :)

5K= 3.1 mi, 10K = 6.2 mi, 15K = 9.3 mi, 20K = 12.4 mi, 25K = 15.5 mi, 30K = 18.6 mi, 35K = 21.7 mi, 40K = 24.8 mi. So like I said, after I beat the bridge, I was done. I did what I wanted to do.

And... "age-graded" results are calculated using tables developed by the World Association of Veteran Athletes. The tables can be used in two ways: first, by comparing your time to a standard for your sex and age, you can determine your Performance Level Percent.

• 100% = Approximate World-Record Level
• Over 90% = World Class
• Over 80% = National Class
• Over 70% = Regional Class
• Over 60% = Local Class

Well at least it wasn't 0%. :-D

I MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

It's official—i made it! Obviously my main goal was to "beat the bridge" at mile 20—they opened the main bridge into DC back up after 5 hours—and I did it! Just barely though, I had to sprint the last half mile to make it there in time. But I made it!!! No loser bus for me! But then it took me 2 hours just to get through the last 6 miles because I was hurting so bad. I was literally limping the last 6 miles, and my mom walked the last 3 miles with me and Andy and Amy walked the last 0.3 miles or so with us. So apparently I didn't "officialy" finish, you have to do it in 7 hours and I came in around 7:05 or so. (Haven't checked the official time yet.) But I don't care—I did it!!! Woohoo!

I had some AWESOME support along the way... so many people encouraged me along the training and I received so many well wishes and "good luck"s. And I had a cheering squad today: at various times, I saw my mom and Andy, both of Andy's parents, Amy, and Galen and Kelly. It means SO much to me that you guys were there, and I really appreciate it! Especially since it took me so freaking long. :)

So after a painful walk to the Metro (yeah, more walking even after limping all that way!) we took the Metro (crowded, but eventually got to sit down—for the first time since 6am!!) and hobbled to the car. I came home and took a long, super hot bath, and then took a nap, and then ate Papa Johns for dinner. And sometime soon, wedding cake! Yay! Happy Anniversary to us!!!

And so now, I can barely walk around my house. I have so many aches and pains, it's ridiculous. Some of them I expected, but some of them—like the roof of my mouth being raw from breathing through my mouth too much—well that's just random. Got some blisters but not too bad, none on the arch thank goodness. I think I had my shoes tied too tight the entire time, because those ligaments or whatever in front of your ankle are sore on both feet, and my left Achilles tendon is busted. Not for real, but it feels like it is creaking every time I flex my foot. And, I'm sunburned. Totally forgot/didn't even consider it. I don't know who said marathons were addictive—I'm NEVER doing that again!

I have to say, I'm really proud of the fundraising too. Thanks to everyone who donated money—we raised over $2000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help eradicate blood cancers! That feels just as good as finishing the marathon.

So what's next? I want to start swimming again, and am considering triathlons. I'm not sure how long an "official" triathlon is, but I know that they are held in all lengths. All I know is, I'm going to keep running at least a little bit—at this point 5 miles is nothing, so if I can keep that in mind, it shouldn't be a problem to knock off 2 miles at the gym even on the worst workday. :)

I MADE IT!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :)

Freak out!

I'm so nervous! This morning I couldn't care less, I just wanted to be done with it. But now I'm looking at the course map and thinking about the plan for race day, and I am soooo nervous!

Good Day

Today is a good day. :) I'm still really stressed and nervous, in fact I couldn't sleep last night so I got up and cleaned for an hour before going back to bed at 12:30. Regardless, my boss took me to lunch, my friend Lea sent me flowers to say good luck, and another friend sent a very encouraging email... all the good wishes mean so much to me, and if you're reading this, then I really appreciate that too!

My weekend is shaping up to be very busy and I'm stressing already... but I have a massage scheduled for Saturday so hopefully it will be a good wind-down activity before the big day on Sunday!!! :)

Awesome

Today kind of sucked. I skipped my run because I worked late and was starving. I picked up Wendy's since this is Andy's pool night, only to get home and realize that he made chili on Sunday and I should have eaten that for dinner. (Bad wife!) I found out that the next few months will be extremely busy at work, at least for me and my boss. Also found out that a coworker's daughter has swine flu, so it could very well already be floating around our office. And our house is a mess as usual, but I can't care about it right now. I probably won't care until Saturday morning when I realize my mom is coming that evening. :) I'm also about 90% sure I'll have my happy fun female time during the marathon. Like I said, awesomeness abounds today.

When I was in a sorority, we always had to say something good about someone if we said something bad. "End on a positive" was the rule. So here we go: I still have a job, I have the best husband ever, I have two awesome kitties, a place to live, I'm healthy (for now anyway), and I generally live a pretty awesome life.

There, pity party over. :)

La Musica

Only ran about 3.5 miles yesterday. My knees are still bothering me (IT band issues)... I've noticed that it takes almost 45 minutes for my body to loosen up and actually feel decent while running. Lucky for me that is only about 1/8 of the time I'll be running on Sunday. :)

Also yesterday, started working on a very large playlist for the marathon. I did some research and found out that while you can't cut mp3s in iTunes, you can designate a start time and end time for a track. So I can tell it to start/end whenever I want it to, and put the playlist on my iPod. That way I can have 3 minutes of a fast song and then 1 minute of a slower, walking song. This is going to take a lot of time, so who knows if I will finish it in time... not to mention that I will have to go back and reset every song to its normal start/end time. (when you change it in the playlist, it changes the file in your library as well. Argh!)

Still feeling nervous, although today I just want it all to end. I'm ready to not have to think about the marathon anymore! Too much pressure! After this, I'm sticking with half marathon or less. Probably less.

I'll be happy if I can still walk after.

It's Getting Real!

I'm starting to feel it! Nerves/anxiety/excitement! I signed Andy up to receive text messages when I cross checkpoints (I think there will be 6 including the finish)... so cool! If anyone wants to receive emails or texts, click here! :)

Here's the official course:

Thursday

Thursday's run wasn't bad at all. I've noticed that they all start off badly, usually everything from my hips down hurts when I first start running. It's like my legs are protesting this increased movement... but if I can ignore it for 15-20 minutes, I fall into a rhythm and it starts getting more comfortable. Unfortunately, I only had to run 30 minutes on Thursday, so I just got over the uncomfortableness when it was time to stop!

I've been icing my hips, knees, and shins a lot lately... starting to feel like I'm falling apart. I'm trying to take it easy but still keep moving... I CANNOT BELIEVE that I am running a marathon a week from tomorrow! I'm starting to feel less nervous and more just ready to get it overwith. :-p

Nervous!!

Sunday's run was bad, I barely made 5 miles. Everything hurt! I guess that's what happens when you take a week off... even on Tuesday it was a struggle to put in the required 30 minutes. I just feel so tired and my knees and hips hurt. :(

I'm really starting to get nervous again, I can't believe it's just over a week away! What was I thinking??!! I don't know why I feel so much pressure to do well. I guess it's the fact that everyone I know knows that I am doing this, and they will all be asking about it when it's over. And the fact that people have donated money to the LLS while linked to my marathon. Mainly I think it's just pride. I have a hard time with "failure"—whether it is real or imagined.

I just really want to well, which in my mind I guess is finishing at around a 14 min/mi pace and not getting injured along the way. Maybe being injured is what I'm so nervous about... I was really struggling with the blisters those last 4 miles of the 20 mi run. I can't imagine 6 more miles with that pain...

I think I should get a massage tomorrow.

Getting Back in the Run

I haven't run all week—not usually a good thing, but it couldn't be helped. My foot is feeling better, we'll see what happens when I put on my shoes tomorrow morning. Can't decide if I'm going to do my 8 miles here or meet the rest of the group. They're running near the Iwo Jima memorial, which is the finish line of the marathon. I feel like it could be beneficial to see something I recognize as I'm finising the marathon... but then again I could just take the Metro and walk part of the course to see what the end is like. I think it will come down to how tired I am in the morning—I've been pretty tired this week. It's rough getting back into a routine when you've been on vacation. Fortunately, I have Monday off for Columbus Day. God bless the U.S. government. :)

Ouch.

The huge blister on my righ arch is not healing very quickly. I had to do some minor surgery on it last night because it kept filling up with fluid even after I drained it. Now I have Neosporin and a giant gauze bandage on it... trying to keep it somewhat elevated by putting it up onto my old desktop computer, which fortunately was still under my desk from 2.5 years ago when I got the laptop.

The worst thing is that I can't run in this condition. I can't even wear my running shoes, because I can't have anything rubbing on the arch... fortunately my work shoes don't touch that area... don't think I could hobble around here barefoot like I do at home.

I am noticing the effects of not running, though... especially coming back from such a long time off, my eyes aren't used to staring at the computer all day, and I keep getting tension headaches. I need my stress relief back! Amazing that I'm complaining about not being able to excercise, huh? :)

20 MILES!!!!!

I ran 20 miles yesterday! Well, OK, I had to walk the last 4. But still!!! This is the first time that I actually think I will surivive the marathon. I still need to work on my pacing though, because I did the first 10 miles in 2 hrs 5 minutes, and the other 10 miles in 2 hrs 40 minutes. That includes the walking 4 miles. So, if I could reserve some of the energy I had in the beginning, then hopefully I can prolong the running and save more walking for later in the race... Still though, 10 miles in 2 hours! That's the fastest I've done a long run! UNbelieveable. I'm thinking I will still race so that I have a goal to keep me running after the marathon. But 10 miles is probably the farthest I would go... maybe the occasional half marathon.

I also have some physical issues to figure out still... no shin splints (knock on wood!) but I have some INSANE blisters from yesterday... I might have been able to push more running but the blisters were killing me. I even have a huge on on my arch of my right foot... Why? How? What?? I also need to be better about stretching afterward... the stretching I did was apparently not enough, because I have tin man syndrome for the first time in a long time.

Still, 20 miles!!!!!!! Now I get to "take it easy" from here until the race, with the longest run being 8 miles next Saturday and the shortest 3 miles the week before the race. I think I am ready! :)

Douthat

Last week, Andy and I were on vacation at Douthat State Park.

They have great trails there, and they're multi-use so we were able to do some awesome mountain biking. Basically, the state park goes from peak to peak, with a lake and cabins and campgrounds in the valley. The last time we were there (when we got engaged!) we hiked up one side of the mountain. Well, this time we BIKED up the other mountain!

It took us 5.5 hours round trip, because it was a lot of climbing. I usually have a hard time on uphill rides, but this was so much harder because the trails aren't smooth; they are rocky and have roots and it's just harder in general. So we took about a million 2 minute breaks and about 25,000 6 minute breaks, but we made it to the top!

The photos, as you can see, were so worth it... you'd think that coming down would be great, but I actually enjoyed the descent LESS than the climbing! It was pretty scary, and although I only fell once, it really shook me up to be sliding down the side of the mountain. Fortunately, I fell in mud, so it was a soft landing. (How often do you say "fortunately, I fell in mud?!") In any case, we made it down in about 25 minutes, as opposed to the 5 hours of climbing.

All in all, it felt great, and we are really proud of our accomplishment! Of course, we did absolutely nothing the rest of the day. :)

Last Sunday

I cried over running. Twice. Who would've thought??