Marathon day!

It is finally here ladies and gentleman... the day to see if all my training was worth it.  All the late nights on a treadmill... missing out on eating dinner with the family so that I wouldn't be stuffed with food for the run later that night... all the junk TV I watched while on the treadmill... and the pain of all those miles...

Getting my race packet... and trying on my new shirt. :)

And I am happy to say it did in fact pay off.  :)  To jump to the end I finished the 26.5 course (Yes, a marathon is only 26.2 but for some reason they made it a little longer?) in 4 hours and 15 minutes.  Oof!  My first and foremost goal was to finish, and I was fairly certain that I was going to be able to do that.  My next goal was after finishing, I wanted to try and do it in less than 4:20... which would've put me at 10 min/miles.  So I was pumped that I finished ahead of schedule.  :)  Now, that all the fun facts are out, here's how my day went.

Just crossed the finish.  My eyes saying, "I can't believe I did it!"

I woke up at 5 am to get a little bit of food in me before running.  I normally don't run in the morning and I don't do so well then either.  I don't think that my body is quite awake... so I tried to give myself enough time to wake up and digest some.  We left the house around 6:30.  I packed a bag full of dry clothes for after the race and another bag full of goodies and snacks for the kids to do while they waited.  Some toys and drawing and activities to keep them busy as well.  Gaetan dropped me off at 'tent city' where everything was by the start/finish around 7.  I thought that it was going to take a lot longer with traffic so we left way earlier than we needed to, but this allowed me to get a little bit of a warm up in and hit the bathrooms before the start.  I also go to catch the tail end of the church service and I drank my pre-run drink and had a few energy chews.

While lining up I tried to find my pacesetters.  I lined up between the 4:15 and the 4:30 guys.  My only concern was that I was going to go out to fast and just die at the end... so I tried to stay with them as closely as possible.  About 1.5 miles out I stepped on this huge rock that hurt really bad... and since I have minimalist shoes I felt all of it!  Ugh!  I stayed with the 4:15 pacesetters for a long time.  I even ran ahead of them a little bit too!

I was so excited to see Gaetan and the kids.  We sorta planned out where we would meet up and that was around the half way point.  I actually saw them around 14 miles.  :)  I was SO HAPPY to see them.  My 13 mile time was 2:04 (which is what I ran the half in at Seattle) and I was feeling really good.  Around mile 9 though I kinda had that feeling that I didn't want to be running anymore and I thought, "Oh no... I can't think this already!  I have a LONG way to go still!"  but after I saw the family it boosted my energy and I took off!  I stayed ahead of the pacesetters from about mile 15-21... but then they caught me on this HUGE hill.

Looking at the elevation map online it doesn't look like a very hilly course... but that would be wrong.  It had some good sized hills in them for sure... The worst was at mile 25... who thinks that's a good idea to put a big hill so close to the end?! haha.  I have to admit though I did end up walking up that hill... but I don't feel ashamed about it.  So there.  :P

My sister and her family came to cheer me on too!  :)  They were right around the 20 mile mark... and it was just the boost I needed too.  I was starting to feel the miles and then I saw them and it kept me going until mile 22.  At 20 miles I was at 3:10, so I was happy with that.  At that point I thought, "I got this.  No worries!  It's all but over..."

My nephews waiting for me

See!  I'm so happy to be at mile 20!  haha

But then mile 22 happened.  And it was like I got hit with a brick wall.  Ouch.  My lower back was starting to feel all the impact, my feet were getting blisters and my mental motivation was dwindling fast... From about miles 22-24.5 I was in some serious mental trouble.  I also realized that I had been listening to the same song for 22 miles... so I changed my iPod.  Up until this point I was running with one earbud in and holding the other because I liked listening to the other runners and the crowd... but this was serious time and I needed to try and focus, but I was just bored mentally... I had gotten over the physical pain but I just didn't want to be doing it anymore.  I just started looking for the water stations... so I would just keep telling myself to run to the next one.  At the 24.5 mile one though I did have to take a potty break... I had hit every single water station to stay hydrated so it was a good excuse to take a mini break.

I knew once I saw the mile 25 sign I was home free.  And I was!  The last little bit went by so fast and there were so many people there cheering everybody on.  It was great.  While I came into the home stretch there was an announcer saying people's names as they crossed if he had time and the poor guy started to say my name and got to Julie Van.... then he just went uhh... and mumbled something.  Haha.  It's all good though.  :)

I'm happy I did it.  I'm glad I could finish it.  And I would recommend it to anybody who has the time and the motivation.  They say that you go through all the emotions when you do a marathon and they aren't kidding.  You go from thinking you can run forever, a bit euphoric, to thinking "I'm going to die!" and everything in between.  My trick seriously was to just keep smiling.  All the spectators were so helpful and you can't help but smile back at them.  And I think smiling helped keep my attitude up as long as it could.  I also have heard from people that you should stop at all the aid stations to get hydrated.  I would recommend that as well.  all the stations I got water, but I picked up some of that GUGel around mile 8 and ate it around mile 10 and 14.  Some other places I got some electrolyte drink too to keep everything balanced.

I am happy with how everything went today.  I got to go out to eat with Holly and her family afterwards.  It was nice hanging out with them.  I appreciate all the support that everybody has shown me through this endeavor.  To Gaetan, who watched the kids while I went on my long runs outside and was so encouraging the entire time.  For believing in me, way before I thought that I could... and for watching the kids during today... and then taking care of them when we got home because I'm lame.  I have to say the things that are the sorest are my knees and my right foot.  My leg muscles feel great and I even got some sun on my face and now have sock and short lines... haha.

Proud sister.  :)

I can't believe that the day is over.  For right now, I'm gonna say that I'm not going to be running a marathon anytime in the near future... but I guess 6 months ago I would've told you that I wouldn't have ever wanted to run a marathon period.  So, who knows. :)

My finishers medal :)

I am also very impressed with how Kalamazoo handled the marathon.  Everything seemed to be really organized and the flow of traffic was amazing.  I feel like, in big events like this, that's the hardest thing to control or make smooth... and they did a great job.  The announcer was saying some stats and there were 900 marathoners, about 2,500 half marathoners and then about 1,500 5K's and a lot of 10K's but I missed that number.  That's a lot!  There is a guy librarian also who is a marathon runner and he said that he ran it as well... :)  I didn't see him, but he said he was around the 5 hour mark.

We are at 49% on the fundraiser which is over $1,500!  almost $1,600.  Which is amazing.  I know that there is some more coming in and I can't wait to see what an impact we can make.

JVG