2014 Dallas Marathon

If you want to skip the long post, this video accurately sums up the emotions while running a marathon.

The results are in, and I finished the Marathon in 4 hours 56 minutes 48 seconds. That means I accomplished both goals that Rachel set out 8 months ago when we registered for the marathon!

1. Crossed a major bucket list item off and FINISHED a Marathon
2. Complete the Marathon in under 5 hours. check.

I've blogged enough about the training, but I wanted to blog about the day before and the actual event while it is fresh in my mind.

Rachel and I registered back in April because there was a window of time to get the discount for 2013 registered runners. Right after we registered, Rachel booked a room in the Aloft hotel in downtown Dallas because her husband has the hook-up (works at the Westin). The start line was LITERALLY (using this word correctly) right outside the hotel. AH-Mazing.

I went to pick up by bib and went through the Expo with my good friend and former college room mate Cassandra. I love me some Cassie time! We got some cool free stuff and purchased some items too! I got a 26.2 sticker for my car and a magnet for my fridge, plus some other goodies.

Rachel came in from her family Christmas and I went through the expo with her. Dinner was at Campisi's just a few blocks away from the hotel. We Carb-o-loaded like nobody's business. We split a large Dinner salad, had a basket of garlic toast, shared a big plate of spaghetti & meatballs, and split a small pepperoni pizza. No food was wasted... we ate ALL of it. Drank lots of water in lieu of wine though :(.

We walked back to our room and went through our typical rituals before a long run. Rolled, drank a lot of water, drank a gatorade, and checked out the view from our room. The reunion tower was lit up with a tribute to the runners, and the Omni hotel is always lit up. Sweet view!

We banked on sleep at 9 pm. I was super excited and couldn't fall asleep right away though. Probably fell asleep at 10:45pm.

Woke up at 6am. Rachel packed our regular breakfast of scrambled eggs and turkey bacon. We had to go down to the lobby to heat them up, and there were runners already dressed with their bibs and everything. They were clearly not taking advantage of having a hotel right outside the start line.

Cassie got there early and I invited her up to our room. We had to deal with a super rude security officer who didn't want her to come up the room with me.. that's a whole different story... whatever.

We went down to the corrals around 7:30am because they closed at 7:45am. It was like herding cattle into a giant cage. SOOOOO many runners.

We were super excited, Star Spangled banner played, and we were off.. it took about 12 minutes for our corral to finally get to start running. I saw my cheer section at the Start line! Thanks Mom, Dad, and Katie for coming out to support me!

The first 11 miles FLEW by. There were so many spectators, bands were playing, the half-marathon and marathon runners were all together so it was super crowded, and the first half of the race is cake compared to the second half.

Right at 11 miles the half-marathoners split one direction, and the full marathoners went the other way. we were running on the other side of the marathon section when we heard a lot screaming and cheering. We looked at the other side and saw the elite runners running super fast with the car in front filming them driving really fast. We had been running just under 2 hours and they were already at mile 23! It was crazy! the winner finished the FULL marathon in 2 hours and 17 minutes.

Saw my cheer section in an area out by Mockingbird! I was feeling good and running strong. We had stopped at mile 7 to get water, energy gummy blocks, and take advil, so we were feeling strong. We stopped again at mile 12 to use the restroom and re-load on our gummy blocks.

Kept running, and running, and running. There was this long section that was on the perimeter of white rock lake that felt like it lasted forever. it was from mile 14 to mile 18, but it was a down and back. I got to see my cheer section twice during this part, and even got to kiss my mom/dad and high-five my sis.

The whole time the weather was muggy and there were occasional sprinkles, but in the middle of mile 19 the rain came. It was ridiculous the downpour that happened. It would come and go, but at one point there was no avoiding the puddles, and my shoes and socks were sopping wet and heavy from mile 20 to the end. Hair soaked... everything soaked. It was not good. Rain was in my eyes, and it was slowing us down.

The whole time we were trying to stay ahead of the 5:00 pacer. If we got behind her we wouldn't meet our goal! She got ahead of us a few times, but luckily we kicked it into gear in the most painful time for the whole marathon.

When we got to mile 20,  I had to stop and stretch. There was a bridge we were under to avoid the rain. Muscles were tight and I was feeling it. I was thinking, "okay, 6 more miles... I can do this, I can do this.."

Miles 20-22 were rainy and excruciating. Miles 24-25 were even worse. There weren't very many spectators there cheering people on, because everyone wanted to be at the finish line at that point. There were some people that had already finished the marathon that were encouraging us, and I thought that was really cool.

I was half-way through mile 25 when my phone made a funny sound and my music stopped. The whole time it was raining, my phone was on my arm in my armband, and I just kept thinking, "I don't care if this race ruins my phone and I have to buy a new one..." All I cared about was finishing.

At mile 26 there more spectators, and once I saw that finish line and the clock in the distance, I focused on it, rather than look for my cheer section. Rachel had a second wind and sped ahead to finish, but my body just couldn't. I finished 40 seconds behind Rachel, but we beat 5 hours!!!

We got our 2015 finisher medal, took some photos, then collected our 2013 Half-marathon medal from last year's race, AND our Dallas Duo Medal because we had done both Dallas events.

What a journey it has been! Thanks to everyone for your love and support throughout this endeavor! I have a new favorite picture of me and my running buddy!