I Did It!

After years of running, 13 weeks of training and a broken toe, I did it! It was a great day for a marathon. About 65 degrees and sunny. The crowds were amazing. Having friends come out was especially amazing, some even running with me through certain parts of the course.

Even better, I finished in 4:17:47, faster than the goal I had set for myself.

Overall, it was a great experience and yes, I would do it again!

Hurts So Good

Today was my last long run until race day. I ran a nice 20 miles along the W&OD...I'd never gone all the way to the beginning of the trail, I found it to be a nice run. The weather made it even more perfect. But even better was the surprise of seeing my husband at mile 8 and then again at mile 15 and then finally to greet me at mile 20! What motivation and happiness it brought to me. But his final "surprise" was running me an ice bath once I got home. I had read about how good these are for your muscles and how it reduces any inflammation, and my friend doing the NY Marathon had done a couple and found them to be beneficial. Well, the first few minutes was complete torture and a shock to my system, oddly it were my feet that were in most shock, the legs were okay. But once I settled in and relaxed, the 15 minutes wasn't too bad. Even better was not being sore for the rest of the day or the next day. It was definitely worth it.

Army Ten Miler

Today was the Army 10-Miler, my first time running this race which apparently is the biggest 10-miler in the country with 26,000 participants. I must say, it was definitely the most organized race I've run (not that I've run that many), but they were just so on point from the bag check to the festival at the end. The run itself was also great. It was a nice course with not many hills and the weather was absolutely ideal -- I think it was about 70 that day. I broke my 10 mile race personal record -- okay, only by about a minute -- which was exciting, but of course at the end when I saw the clock I knew I could've pushed myself more...the finish line kind of just crept up on you after a turn...I wasn't prepared for it to come that quickly so I didn't really sprint for as long as I could. But I'm still happy and I really didn't want to overdo it with the marathon just a few weeks away (eek!).

I rewarded myself by buying a new pair of sneakers, my beloved NB 768s, at Pacers where I got a 10% discount when showing my Army 10-Miler finisher's coin :)