Marathon

I did it! Year two running the PF Chang's Marathon, and I'm so glad I did it! Every year during training I swear I'll never do it again, but, you know. I will. Tiff and I headed to the Expo Saturday evening to pick up our timing chip and numbers, then picked up some Mac Grill on the way home. I'm so glad you stayed in town to do this one Tiffany, it was so good to see you and WAY more fun to know someone on the run!

We got there at 6:40 and did some stretching, visited the clean portapots and tried to shake out some nerves before we started. We ran the first six miles together and our paces are pretty much exactly the same. After that we ran on our own and unfortunately didn't meet up again.

We were both in coral 6 since our estimated finish time was the same, which was great because we got start together.

Here we are about two seconds before we took off.

So. Miles 1-13 went fast. At every mile marker I was surprised it came up so quickly. My pace was quicker than I planned too, which was a bonus. They have pacers on the race who hold signs that say "3:30", "4:00", etc. so you can try to keep a steady pace. I started with the 4:45 group and then quickly trotted up to the 4:15ers! I was super shocked/happy. So I'm at the half way point and thinking that I'd get to mile 15 before letting myself start taking breaks. But....I started crying. Now this will probably sound corny to some of you, but this is exactly what happened and I swear it made me fly. I was trotting along when I looked over and saw this little old grandma sitting in a chair cheering people on. She was holding her arms over her head with her thumbs up, and we made eye contact. And for some strange reason, it reminded me of my GG. So the water works started and I cried for a while because I got to thinking about my sweet grandma and about how much I miss her every single day. Once I got my emotions in check I started having a conversation with her in my head and we decided that I was running this one for her and that in return she was going to help me across the finish line. Sound crazy? I know. But that's what we talked about, and I swear she was there with me the whole time. I kept the exact same pace the entire way to the finish line and did not stop to walk once. I finished in 4:16:29 minutes, which is 36 minutes faster than my time last year. No world record or anything, but I was and still am so happy with my time!! Thanks for being there to cheer me on grandma. Love you.

The only sour part of the day was that somewhere between our meeting place at the end of the race and the van, our keys fell out of Clint's pocket. BJ had to get the spare from our house and drive out to save us. Thanks, Beej! We finally made it home around three, to a very cranky Sage who didn't sleep well while we were gone and didn't want grandma to leave and a seriously stubborn baby who had not eaten in 19 hours because she refused to take a bottle. What am I going to do with that child? How do I wean her off the boob when it's time if she just won't eat? And how are Clint and I supposed to get some one on one time when she won't take a bottle for a babysitter? Oh Charlotte. You stinker. Anyways, it was a good day and I look forward to sleeping tonight and relaxing tomorrow!

Clint tried to catch me a couple time throughout the race, but since my pace was faster than I planned, he only spotted my once, at mile twenty. I look spry with a huge butt here, but I wasn't. I was starting to hurt.

At the finish!

And I realized this is gross and probably inappropriate, but this is what happened at mile 15 when my milk came in. Lots of milk stains that turned BROWN and were very noticeable! Very attractive.