Can You Say Twenty -Six Point Two?!?!

It's in the books. I am officially a marathon finisher!!! I was not first (Male 2:07/Female 2:22 and that alone is unreal) Nor was I last (total 33, 633 finishers). But I was keeping up the rear strong. :)

First off, the whole day was incredible. The city of Chicago knows how to put on a marathon. With less than conducive conditions (High low 40s, 40% chance rain) and Chicago living up to it's name of being the Windy City, it was brutal. We prayed that it wouldn't rain, and God honored our prayers big time. Our team fared well. Several finished in under 6 hours. Not bad for people who never ran before March. Lesson learned, follow the instructions given and you can do it.

I did not keep track of my mile splits. I just wanted to kinda be a part of the moment. They had mile markers with clocks throughout, so I could kinda guage where I was. I did a 4/1 (run/walk) up to the first 13.1 miles. Then I went to a 3/1 on the second half, and I am glad that I did. I may have been able to hold the 4/1, but I would have been doing more walking anyway. I was surrounded by run/walkers along the course and that was soooo encouraging. I always said, I may be towards the bottom of my training group, but I knew that on marathon day, there were going to be people around me. So when DH said that he was going to leave me due to his knees, I was a little nervous, but at the same time I knew I would not be alone.

I met people from Toronto, Jackson, MS, Seattle, Indiana, and Chicago just to name a few. Everyone was go nice. And the spectators were unreal. They have inspired me to be a cheerleader for any race out there.

But what was the most encouraging for me was me trying to beat the pace van. I was literally running in front of the Official End Vehicle. That's the van that picks up all of the signs as the route is closing and opens traffic back. I saw this at Mile 24 and I was determined to not let this van beat me. But when I asked one of the coaches from a Team in Training group about the van, she and I both agreed that if the van was in view, then we should be ok. The offical course is closed after 6:30. And to be listed in the official books your time has to be 6:30. I was bound and determined to get to that line. And by God's grace, here is the number.
6:28:01 (14:47 min/mile pace)

I barely made the cut off by 1 minute 59 seconds. And to top it off, DH was just 7 minutes in front of me. I thought he was long gone and waiting in the meeting spot, but he had trouble at mile 18 with his knees. He did amazingly well under the circumstances, and I am so proud of him. We are just thankful to have gone through this journey and thanks for following along.

I'll post more later. I'm really inspired. We are strongly considering the STL 0.5 marathon in April 2007 to maintain. I don't think anymore full marathons are in our future with DHs knees and all. I'm fine with this one. The goal was that I finish by 6:30. So wannaB5Ker, you can do it girl, if you really want to. A 1/2 is a great goal to have.