Wow, what a weekend! I flew to Phoenix Thursday night, and Valerie, the friend I was staying with, picked me up at the airport. First stop....In-n-Out Burger. Mmmm. Valerie had to work on Friday, so I took the opportunity to just hang out and relax a little. I also had one last training run to get in, a quick 2 miles. Since it was dark when I arrived the night before, this was my first chance to get a look at my surroundings.
We're not in Denver anymore!
After Val got off work, we headed downtown to pick up my packet and check out the race expo. I found a couple of shirts that I really liked....
My new motto
I had this thought frequently during the weekend! :-D
After the expo, we met up with my Aunt Judy and cousins Chris and Andi for dinner. It was great to have a margarita, relax a little, and get caught up with family that I hadn't seen for about 12 years.
Saturday was another relaxing day. We slept in a little and then went out for some shopping. Back to Val's house to relax some more before heading down for a pre-race pasta dinner with friends. When I signed up for the race back in October, I did it because I knew I had a couple of friends in the area, as well as some family, so I wouldn't be totally alone. Well, I kept finding out that more and more people I knew were headed down to Arizona, which was really cool. We had nearly 30 people for dinner Saturday night! I got to catch up with friends I hadn't seen in awhile, including my friend Mike, who I grew up with, and his wife and family. Some yummy pasta, and a glass of wine to take the edge off my nerves, and I was a happy girl.
Sonja, Randi, and me
I was good and went to bed early, but slept pretty badly. I think I tossed and turned until at least 1, and then the alarm went off at 4:45. Valerie took me downtown, and we had planned for lots of
extra time because we had heard that traffic was ridiculously crazy.
Well, there was NO traffic and we were there WAY early.
Ready to go, cheesy grin and all!
Val hung out
with me for awhile until I met up with friends Cody, Josh, Randi, and
Michelle, at which point it was time to head for the corrals. They were
all in much lower numbered corrals, so we wished each other good luck
and split. Before I knew it, it was time to go and we started walking
up toward the start line. I couldn't figure out why everybody was
cheering, and then I looked up and realized that John McCain was up on
the stand (and apparently the mayor of Phoenix, not that I would have
any clue who that was). I was really conscious of not going out too
fast and let everyone else just go flowing past me. The first three or
four miles sucked. For some weird reason, even though I was really
watching my pace, I was having some minor side stitches. Nothing too
bad, just really annoying, and messing with my mind because I knew I
had a LONG way to go. What was even worse was that the 5 hour pace
group had started at the front of my corral, and they went out really
fast, and I almost even lost sight of them, which freaked me out! This
was around the point that I tossed the 4:45 goal out the window and
just started hoping for under 5. Around mile 5, I met my
twin...seriously, she was wearing the matching tank top to my skirt,
and a hot pink skirt, so pretty much the same as me, just opposite. :-D
She was great. She was a great pace for me, and we ran together,
chatting up a storm for 8 miles. We caught up with the pace group and
ran with them for a little while before they started making me feel
claustrophobic, so we decided to go around them and get out in front.
That was the last I saw of them!
My running partner was unfortunately suffering from shin splints and
decided to drop out at the half, which was a major bummer since we ran
so well together. I kind of felt like I was running in no-mans land the
next several miles. The crowd had thinned out a bit and there was
nobody running my pace. Anyone that was close was run/walking. I felt
ok, but not great. I was running right around my goal pace and feeling
pretty good through mile 22 or so. Valerie was there, cheering for me right before 22, and I
was running strong.
Why do I always look goofy in pictures of me running?
And then I hit the wall at 23. It kind of snuck up
on me, because everybody had said it would be around 21 or 22. Those
last 3 miles were SO hard. My quads tightened up, then my hamstrings
tightened up. I walked the aid stations, but walking almost felt worse
than running. The last two miles were a shuffle, but I just kept
telling myself that it was only x more miles, I could walk the last bit and
still go under 5 hours. I channeled my dingo sisters ("don't think, just run") and
my friend Amy (kicking breast cancer's a$$). And even though it felt
like fooooreeevvveer, before I knew it, I was coming around the corner
and could see the finish line. I picked it up, and finished really
strong, with a smile. (You can see me cross the finish line here.)
As I was working my way through the water/fruit/etc., I saw Cody and
Josh. Josh had finished not far ahead of me, Cody ran 3:47! And we found out a little later that Michelle ran 3:41 and
qualified for Boston and Randi had a great race and ran 4:07! We headed over to gear check where Valerie met up
with us and ran into my friend Mike and his wife Marisa, who
walked the half-marathon.
We hung out with them and listened to the post-race concert for awhile, talking
and getting caught up some more.
I finished!
Mike and me
Cody, Josh, and me
Later that night, we decided to go meet up with Randi and her friend Jessie for some Mexican food. Oh, and maybe some margaritas. 
Randi and I really enjoyed our margaritas!
Official finishing time: 4:53:54. I'm pretty happy with that. My main goals were just to finish, and to go under 5 hours. I knew I could go 4:45 if I had a good day, but knew pretty early on that it wasn't going to happen, and that was fine. Some parts were much harder than I expected (the beginning), some parts were a lot easier (miles 18-23). I'm still kind of in shock that it's over with already. It all went by so fast! And it's hard to believe that *I'm* a marathoner!
I'm actually not feeling too horribly bad today. My quads are ridiculously sore, the ends of a couple of toes hurt, and there are various other aches and pains, but nothing major. I even wore my boots with 3 inch heels home on the plane. Ok, mostly because they wouldn't fit in my suitcase, and I kind of shuffled a lot, but still. :-D The weirdest thing is that my skin hurts. As in, I was in the shower this morning and when I went to wash my arms...OUCH! Hopefully it's a fairly quick recovery, since I have a race on Saturday! Ok, I'm really not planning on racing, but I'm signed up, so I'll go out and bike 10 miles and run 4. Slowly.
Oh, and in a moment of taper-inspired insanity last week, I did something a little nuts (shocking, I know)...and signed up for my second marathon. Rock n' Roll Denver, October 17! I'm sooooo glad that I have 9 months before I have to do this again!