leavenworth marathon

Well, it didn't go as I expected.

Can't blame it on anything, my training went awesome.

Except for getting sick the week before and ending up with a sinus infection two days before the race, everything else was pointing to finishing around 3:50:00.

4:25:21, was my final time.

My first 13.1 was 1:52.

Second half ended up at 2:31.

Gah!!

Despite it sucking, I loved every minute of it.

And I'm already looking forward to running another marathon.

And now for some pictures:

The line of potty's waiting to be filled up.

Aaron and I stayed the night at my friend Kirsten's home.

Her dad was there visiting. Her girls were there....I cannot tell you how adorable they were. Her husband, also named Aaron, came home from work later on.

We spent the evening catching up on the last 13 years.

I loved being able to chit-chat as if we hadn't gone that long without being face-to-face.

We had to be up and at 'em at 5:30am, but here's the note she had posted on the door:

Totally made my morning.

Thanks, Kirsten!!

Here's some shots I took with the phone:

Mandatory shuttle to the starting line.

The first 10 miles were downhill. So pretty! And not this blurry in real life.

Leavenworth is surrounded by these beautiful mountains.

Aaron's snapshots. He brought a bike to ride around to different parts of the course.

About this time, I was starting to feel the effects of still being sick, but trying my darndest to keep up the pace.

Aaron had given me part of a Powerbar to eat. I turned around to give him a nice, big, sweaty, stinky hug as a thank-you.

A few miles later, this happened. That's me leaving behind a present by that lilac bush.

Trying to keep up the pace didn't really work after that.

But running marathons are so much fun!!!!

 The absolute worst part was mile 24. I tried so, so hard, but just couldn't get my body to go any faster.

Finishing the race sequence:

I guess one complaint would be how weird? confusing? physiological? it was to have the half marathoners running with us. Their race started two hours after ours and followed the same last half of the course. I can remember thinking at mile 17 that all these people passing me were only on mile 4, and that they were supposed to be going that fast.

But this guy is my hero. I love him.