Best Day Ever!

Who would have thought that I would ever describe an experience that was centered around running as the "best day ever"?

We woke up bright and early on Sunday morning at 4:45 am. We put on our race attire, did a little stretching, and ate our bowls of oatmeal and PB&J sandwiches. (Funny side story...kind of. Mike realized as he was making breakfast that we only had 1 packet of oatmeal left. Then, he decided to make a PB&J and realized that we didn't have enough peanut butter for 2 sandwiches. We shared but the lack of food made me a bit nervous for him.) Before we left the house, I insisted that we had to snap a couple of pictures. You know, in case one of us died...We met over at Kate and Peter's house at around 6:00 to catch a ride with them. By the time everyone arrived and we were in the car, it was 6:30. I started to get nervous (I don't even know if nervous can best describe the anxiety that I had going into this day) that we would miss the 7 am start. We parked, hit up a port-a-potty, took the picture below, and started running toward the pace groups behind the START line. Lining up in that corral was really nerve-racking and the anxiety started kicking in again. At least we hadn't missed the start. Before I knew it, we were walking and eventually running across the start line. I could tell within minutes that this run was going to be different. The massive amount of people running at the same time was just incredible. Running down Broadway toward the Brewery, we were able to see an amazing sight. 17,000 were running down the street! My favorite part was only 1.5 miles in. Suddenly, across the street, the fast marathoners were looping back past us. They were only mile 4!

The first 6 miles of the course was wonderful. There was a small incline up Broadway, a few steeper hills through the Brewery and Soulard, and the big hill up Chouteau. Other than that, it was a pretty flat leg of the race. I heard that the other parts of the race had a lot more elevation changes so I guess I lucked out.

Before I knew it, we were at 6 miles and it was time to say goodbye to Mike. He was in great shape and surprising, so was I. Honestly, I have NEVER felt that good while running. I felt like I could keep going. I felt wonderful. I think I might have even smiled for most of the 6 miles. I said goodbye to Mike, met my relay teammate, Lynne, to pass on our timing tag, and she was on her way. I am not sure about official timing but my Garmin said that I ran 6.2 miles in 1:06. I was pretty darn happy with that. The atmosphere and the energy kept me going. All of the people around and the supporter just keep you going. It really is the coolest thing ever.

After about 30 minutes of walking around downtown, Kate and I found a good place to watch the finishers of the half marathon (right at mile 13). Our friends were rolling through and I was just waiting for Mike. We had no clue when he would be done but we guess between 2 hours and 2:30. At about 2:20, I saw this cutie running toward me.(The first thing that my dad said when he saw this picture is that he couldn't stop looking at the old lady who beat Mike. But that is the coolest part! There were so many older and larger people that were amazing runners. There was a man juggling and he was going faster than we were!)

I shouted and asked if he wanted me to finish with him. Earlier in the week when I asked him if I should meet him at mile 12 and finish with him, he told me no. But this day, he eagerly said yes so I jumped into the race and ran the last couple of minutes with him. I was so proud of him at that moment and I wanted to cry. After we crossed the finish line, I snapped another picture of my half-marathoner with his medal. Not looking too shabby for just finishing 13.1 miles, huh? Mike left to go back to Kate and Peter's to shower and change, while I met with with friends that finished the half. I had to wait until my relay team finished the whole marathon so we could cross the finish line together. It was such a beautiful day and I was so lucky to be able to meet us with friends and talk about the run.

At about 10:45, I got a text that our final relay member had started her run. We figured that we needed to line up to meet her at about 11:45. We stood at the top of the huge hill called Market Street and waited for our teammate to come. A few minutes later, we saw her coming up the hill. Our 4-person relay team rallied together to finish the marathon strong. We held hands crossing the finish line and were so proud of our time. When we first signed up, we had to guess a finishing time. We guessed 5 hours. Then after much discussion, we changed that finish time to 6 hours. I am proud to say that we finished the marathon in less than 5 hours! I think our time was 4:50ish. Here we are right after we got our medals...That's Tess, Kate, Me, and Lynne (Tess didn't get the memo about the blue shirts. Or putting on the medal. She does that sometimes.)

We ended the day back at Kate's for a bunch of food, drinks, and race talk. Nothing like mimosas to make you feel better after a long day... This day was really amazing. Inspiring. Wonderful. The best. I am SO proud of my friends, my husband, and myself. Only 7 months ago, my running journey began and I posted THIS about signing up for the Turkey Trot. At the time, I couldn't fathom running for 30 minutes straight. Reading through those Couch to 5K posts is fun...I really struggled. I still struggle and have bad days. But I would have never thought that 7 months later, I would be able to run for 66 minutes without stopping. NEVER. I want to run a half-marathon now. I know that it is going to be a big jump and a lot of work but I am ready for it. I am not sure which one I am going to sign-up for but it is in my future. Thank you for all of the people that have supported and encouraged me through this entire process. Thank you for all of you that ran on Sunday morning and inspired me to continue my journey. The running community is an amazing one and I am glad to be a part of it.