Marathon day

well ... i ran my LEG. (i ran my legs OFF.) as usual, i am not sure it would QUALIFY as 'running'...but whatever you might call it: i put one leg in front of the other for 6.3 miles on leg 3 of our relay in the marathon today! yeahoo!

I HAVE TO COMMENT ON ALL THE ENCOURAGEMENT FROM EVERYONE! MOM AND DAD, MY WONDERFUL HUSBAND, AND MY KIDDOS WERE ALL THERE, AT THE BEG., END, AND ABOUT 7 PLACES IN BETWEEN! CHEERING ME ON AND, AHEM, TAKING PICS (THX DAD)! IT DID MY HEART GOOD. I DUNNO IF I'D HAVE MADE IT W/O YOU GUYS! THANK YOU! AND BRO g. CALLING AND GETTING UPDATES VIA MOM'S CELL AND SIS e. CALLING AND CHECKING UP TOO. YOU ARE ALL AWESOME! I LOVE YOU!

i took off not knowing WHAT to expect. i took 1 dayquil at like 6:45 a.m. & 2 ibuprofen around 9:45 a.m. or so...about 20 minutes before i was handed the PONY TAIL HOLDER (what they used for us to hold & pass from 1 relay member 2 the next). there has been a LOT of praying going on. could it be? do you believe in miracles? i do.

but, not knowing what to expect from my body, feeling no pain (no aches while i have been doing NOTHING for the last 3 days or so...13 days of no real running, 7 days of no walk/jogging), yet EXTREMELY jittery (!we all were SO nervous! why?!) i took off from the transition point. i waited --almost holding my breath--that's not beneficial when running-- for my knee to give out, start SCREAMING out in pain...but ... nothing! i think i 'felt' it...like a twinge...w/in the first 2 miles. but then nothing. and no pain since! wowee! praise God!

what i did feel was a tight chest that wasn't getting enough air. i kept coughing (this morning there were chunks coming out of my lungs) and you know how you cough every once in awhile when you're running anyway? well, i'd need to REALLY cough, but i could never get it all the way cleared. no chunks whilst running, good thing. but a few times i coughed so hard i retched.

had to stop once to retie my shoe. kind of walked a few steps up one very steep little bit to the start of a bridge. stopped for water (10 steps max) 2x. stopped 2x to lean over and cough, and almost puke. okay, that was nice: as soon as i got up i realized a group of 3 marathoning guys was behind me. i don't even care about their view. but i dint want them to think i was puking.

other n'that, i never stopped and walked! wowee, huh? one hour 8 minutes.

the worst part was the lungs. i wonder what their capacity was? i really feel it in the chest tonite, too. and now ds(9) has it too. at nite my throat is excruciating too. prolly from all the coughing. also explains the headache.

from about 4 miles on, couldn't feel any of my toes on rt foot. tied too tight? well, he gave me such WIDE shoes, when i walk around at home they felt too big in the toe box. so i was compensating. but i think a little too much.

my team did great. none said it was a great run. all said it was very hard. part of the deal was the desolation. this was a small marathon. the marathoners, for the most part, took off never to be seen again. there were a FEW who ran it in the 4 hour range and prob some slower. but for the most part, trailing were the relay teams and the few and far between slower marathoners. well, it can be very lonely! when i was about .2 miles from end, my teammate kelli came and ran with me. WHATTA DIFFERENCE! i was able to step it up and of course, i sprinted at the end. really not saying much when it was such a short distance! what the heck.

but on the team, there were so many problems just going into the race. whereas a few wks ago, we were all on 'top of our game,' going in, the house crumbled. my over-chronicled problems. one hurt her knee just this wk. one hasn't been running a lot lately and has had feet problems. one found out she is PREGO! (congrats!) it's all good, tho, since she'd already been running this much and is, yet, unsick! but we tried to get her to take it easy. i think our total time was 4:33. great!

on another note, my friend C!!!! qualified for the Boston, which was her goal!!! WAY TO GO C! thanks for inspiring me.

again, all the Glory to God!
kt