The meanderings of me (Kim). Sometimes while running.: FINISHER

Well...what to say? I finished!! Yeah!!

Saturday was the expo and it was sooo cold and snowy! That was bizarre. I was not happy with the "electronic goodie bags" and was also slightly disappointed with the lack of free samples available at the expo. Still got a few good samples though. Not to sound too complain-y but the shirts were strange? They are long sleeved 100% cotton mock turtles. I got a small which is very tight in the waist but the sleeves are really baggy and it is a strange fit. Oh well.

Scott and I in the freezing cold after visiting the expo.

Well the marathon started off pretty good. The weather was almost perfect and I was feeling great. Around mile 2, I found Laurel....I thought I would never find her, but I did and we ran together for ten miles or so? Then Scott and I had to stop for the bathroom and Laurel kept on and...that was the end of us seeing her. It sounds like she had a great run and finished strong!! I wish I could have kept up with her!

We stopped a few times starting around mile 12... Scott's stomach was giving him fits...mine was a bit too. I don't know why because I don't think I ate anything too different. Next marathon (yes, I said next one...I need to redeem myself!) I will keep a food log during my training so that I hopefully can avoid the terrible bathroom situation. The lines at the bathrooms for the first 13 miles or so were horrendous. After that they weren't too bad but of course we didn't need them then!

I think around mile 4 or so, my foot started bothering me - the same foot pain that kept me from running for the last 3 weeks - but I kept running through it. Sometimes it would be worse and sometimes it would not hurt too badly.

I'm not sure when but probably around mile 15 or so, Scott's knee was really giving him fits. Then my right hip started hurting and we were quite a pair because it hurt more for him to run and more for me to walk. There were times when we each held each other back, so I'm sure we would have both finished faster if we had done it alone, but we had each other to talk to, complain to, blame each other (why in the world are we doing this??), so that made it better.

Mile 16 or so I remember thinking OH MY GOSH WE STILL HAVE TEN MILES. And it was STARVING. In fact my mom has a video of me running by and I said to her "I'm so hungry!!" So everything along the way that I could eat, I ate. I'm sure there will be pictures of me stuffing my face and that is pretty much my memory of the race. Pretzels, gummy bears, cookies, oranges, sour patch kids, donuts..... none of those things upset my stomach. Everything tasted SO GOOD. All I could think about while I was running was salty potato chips or french fries. So I figured that I probably needed the salt and I drank double gatorade at each of the water stations.

All in all, I ended up finishing in 5:39. I was hoping for around 4:30 and if I would have kept up with my pace from the first 12 miles, I think I would have made it.

I finished, so that's what counts, right?