Saturday, November 5, 2011

A Marathon That Wasn't Meant To Be

So the last time I posted, I talked about signing up for a marathon. Obviously, that has come and gone, and I did a phenomenal job of keeping up with documenting that.

I trained, got injured, and then had A LOT of not so wonderful things happen the week before the race. I knew it was a long shot that I could finish the whole 26.2 but I wasn't about to let my best friend, who was training over 300 miles away from me this entire time, down. So on Sunday morning, I toed the line with her.



The first 6 miles felt good - minus the fact that I could not keep ANY liquids down. As soon as they went in, they came right back out. Also, my hands and feet were numb. No blood flowing to them. Definitely made for an interesting first 6 miles. Around mile 7, the GU I took at mile 5 decided it didn't want to stay down either.

Needless to say, I knew this was not going to be my race. Slowly the pain in my leg that had plagued me from halfway through my training cycle kicked in and I had to stop to walk. Lydia went on without me. I hated that I wasn't going to be crossing the finish line with her but I wasn't about to hold her back.


P.S. That's my awesome mama who rode her bike next to me the entire race, and then rode ahead and found Lyd and rode her all the way to the finish! Talk about a rockstar!


I thought I'd be able to run/walk the rest of the race, but as the race progressed it began to heat up. Not being able to keep any fluids or gels down, I quickly realized that even with walk breaks, finishing might not happen. To make matters worse, that old injury (that I had never let properly heal) was REALLY bothering me. Around mile 12, after much discussion with my mom, we decided it did not seem smart to push my body. After crossing the 14 mile mark, I finally saw my amazing cheering section comprised of my dad and (step)mom. I sadly walked off the course and hopped in their car, determined to see Lydia along the course and cross the finish line.

We got a little lost but headed to mile 18 in hopes of seeing her before the finish. We thought we had missed her but before long, she came out of nowhere looking great! She yelled to me that she missed me. While it broke my heart that I wasn't there running along side of her, I knew it wasn't my day. We cheered her on and then headed to the finish, as there wasn't anywhere else to spectate until the end.



As we waited, it was hard seeing everyone crossing the finish line, knowing that should have been me. But I pushed those thoughts aside and cheered my little heart out knowing that one day that WILL be me.

Before long, Lydia came around the corner and flew across the finish line! She had done it! She had completed her first marathon! She had run 26.2 miles! To say I was proud would be an understatement!





The next few days were rough as I had an wondered if I should have kept pushing. If I should have pushed through the pain. However, I know that if I had, I probably would have done more damage than good. While it was hard to pull out after only 14 miles, I still ran 14 miles!

And this isn't the end for me and the marathon. I WILL get that 26.2. October 9th just wasn't that day.

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