I Did It! I Finished 26.2 Miles!

The week before the marathon was pure craziness.  First, we found out my father-in-law was scheduled to go in to have surgery to check out a mass in his lungs Wednesday, so we had to work out all the logistics of getting him to surgery and having someone with him and visiting while in the hospital.  Luckily, Dave's brother Craig and his wife Amanda were able to take on the duties.  Then Anna woke up Tuesday morning with a fever.  She stayed home that first day, with Jim still home next door in case she needed anything, but as the fever continued into Wednesday, we called in my parents for reinforcement.  Anna ended up having the flu and missing 4 days of school.  Luckily my parents were available to spend a few extra days at my house helping care for Anna.  The whole time, I'm trying to balance being a good mother, daughter-in-law, daughter, and wife with getting ready for the marathon.  I was so fearful that this would all negatively impact the event for which I had been training for the last 6 months.  I feel selfish saying that as I try hard not to be the "it's all about me" type, but at this last moment after all my hard work and training, I really wanted to accomplish the goal of completing 26.2.

Thursday night we visited Jim, Dave's dad, and he was sitting up and in good spirits in the hospital.  It turns out the mass in his lung was squamous cell cancer, so the surgeon had to remove 1/2 of one of Jim's lungs.  He was healing nice and was in good spirits.  Craig and Amanda assured us that they would be on call for anything that was needed, and Jim reaffirmed that we should go ahead as planned with the marathon.  He said we had trained so long for this, that we absolutely should not change our plans.

My parents took Anna to the doctor on Wednesday, and it turned out she had the flu.  The doctor gave her Tamiflu to help shorten the duration and help with some of the symptoms.  Anna's fever was better by Thursday night.  My parents had originally planned on staying Friday-Sunday, but they had spent the day on Wednesday, then packed their bags a day early and arrived Thursday morning.  They were here if Anna needed to stay home Friday.  Friday morning, Anna woke up with watery eyes, some coughing, and a low grade fever.  She was home for one more day, but definitely on the road to recovery.  She told us she would be fine with Grandma and Grandpa and my parents assured me they had things under control, so we were ready to head to Memphis.

The drive down was a nice, easy drive.  We stopped for lunch at Taco Bell in Arkansas, then headed to our hotel in Memphis.  We made sure to stay well hydrated all day, which led to more than the usual number of restroom stops, but we still had a quick trip down.  Upon arriving in Memphis, we checked into the Residence Inn then walked down to the Convention Center for the Expo and packet pickup.  We picked up our race bags and numbers, my St. Jude Hero singlet, and we walked through the Expo for a bit.  Then we walked around Memphis to decide where we might want to eat our meals over the weekend. 

After returning to the hotel to relax and freshen up, we went out to dinner at a nearby restaurant called Automatic Slims.  The appetizers were all half price, so we made a meal out of a variety of unique appetizers and a salad.  We had crab cakes, blue cheese smothered homemade potato chips, gouda and bacon macaroni and cheese, calamari, and a poached pear and walnut salad.  Then we headed back to the hotel and called it an early night.  Of course, I made sure to lay out all my race gear before going to bed!

We woke early in the morning.  I think we were both awake by 4:30.  We continued to lay in bed to at least get a little more rest even though we couldn't sleep.  By 5:00, we were up out of bed making plans for our race and our day.  We put on our race gear, then went down to the hotel breakfast by 6:00.  I had my usual pre-race meal of an English muffin with peanut butter and jelly and a banana.  We sat by these two college age boys discussing their plans for pacing in the half marathon.  It was somewhat entertaining.

Back up to the room for finishing touches and one last restroom break, then it was time to go over to bag check.  Bag check was in the stadium, so it took a while to get in through the crowd.  After bag check, we went to the hero's lounge area in a nearby hotel lobby for one more restroom break.  Then it was time to line up in our corral.  We went to corral 9, and lined up just behind the 4:40 finish pacers.  My goal was to stay with them for as long as I could, then if I dropped back near the end of the marathon, I figured I'd still make it in under 5 hours.

I was so excited as I stood there waiting for our turn to begin.  Once we started, I tried to keep it at a nice steady pace.  Dave ran with me, hoping that he would be able to finish the full marathon even with his stress fractures if he stayed at my pace.  There was a lot of crowd support throughout the entire first half of the marathon, so I kept noticing myself speed up.  Dave kept telling me I was picking up the pace a bit too much and needed to slow down. The fastest mile was the one which included running through the St. Jude campus.  I was trying to hold back the tears and found it hard to breathe as we were running through with all the hospital workers, parents, and other supports cheering us on.  It was very moving! 

Dave started running with a bit of a limp around mile 9, so by mile 10 he knew he was going to have to turn off at the half marathon split.  So after we split off in the 12th mile, I was on my own for the rest of the race.  We had actually gotten ahead of the 4:40 pacers, but after I tripped and fell on mile 15, I started slowing down my pace a bit.  In the 16th mile, the 4:40 pacers had caught back up to me, so I got in with the group running with the pacers for the next couple of miles.  By mile 19, I was feeling some soreness in my muscles.  I walked a little longer after my water breaks, and I would alternate running and walking, especially when I would be going up a hill.  At mile 22, there was a group called the "Harriers" handing out beer.  I grabbed one to keep me going:)  The miles really did keep ticking by quickly.  There were so many little inspirational things and all the support from the crowds, even though they were a bit more spread out through the second half of the race, kept me going.  I kept thinking about all my friends and family that were cheering me on from home and looking forward to hearing the results.  As I came into the final mile, I felt tears in my eyes knowing that I was actually going to complete a marathon.  Running into the Autozone park stadium for the finish was a great way to finish.  Also, I saw Dave up above and he was cheering me on.  Then getting the medal and knowing all the hard work of training had led up to this moment!  Priceless!

I was able to fundraise $922 for St. Jude.  I have improved my own health through all this.  And I hope I have inspired some others to think about things they can achieve when they pick a goal and stick to it.  I'm already thinking about what to do next?  I think a half marathon or two in the spring and maybe a few shorter races.  Maybe another marathon next fall.....

To celebrate after the marathon, we went out to lunch at a nearby bar and grill for burgers, fries, and beer.  After some naps and showers, we went back out later in the evening for dinner, drinks and music at B.B. Kings on Beele Street.  We spent a little time enjoying the sights on Beele Street, but then I was exhausted and ready to call it a night by about 9.  Lame, I know, but 26.2 miles takes it out of you....and the cost of cover charges and drinks for a night out was just too much for us to justify staying out too late into the night.  Overall, this was a wonderful weekend!