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I ran a MARATHON!

I am not sure where to start with this post, what witty or cute thing to say, so I am just going to skip that and let this picture do the talking:
I ran a marathon!

Yep, twenty six point two miles later, I am a marathon finisher and I am feeling pretty darn good about it. The bottoms of my feet are sore, but the rest of my body feels totally great, which means I trained well and didn't push myself too hard on race day. It also means that I need new running shoes, apparently about 800 miles was my limit on my trusty Brooks.

The race was pretty amazing for a number of reasons

The weather was perfect - cool and sunny with some splashes of cloud breaks to keep from being too bright or hot.

The views were beautiful and varied - the Newport mansions, the ocean and lots of greenery - oh New England, you beautiful thing  you.

The spectators were awesome - there was a group at mile twenty banging on pots and pans and waving a flag and cheering their hearts out who could not have been more perfectly placed for the time that I needed some encouragement.

I had my husband, my best friend, my biggest fan and my best coach running next to me the whole time.

A finishing kiss!
There were rough points, like right after the half, where some people were finishing their race and us full-marathoners continued on. It was a bit of a mind f*#k to see people ending their race and knowing that we still had the same amount to go again, but seeing my family cheering and excited for us felt really good (thanks, guys!) and once I hit mile 20 and was officially on my longest run ever, things balanced out. It was around mile 24 that I started to get pretty emotional with the thought that I was actually going to finish and be able to say that I ran a marathon, and of course thoughts of last April came to me and all that emotion and I would have stopped to cry but I really wanted to get off my feet :)

Happy to see our family at the halfway point.
I never set out to be a runner, I started this journey to shed the baby weight I had gained, get some time to myself outdoors multiple times a week and maybe do the Disney Princess Half if I could. And now, I am a proud runner, a marathoner, and ready to pick up training in December for my next half and full.

As for the rest of the weekend, we sandwiched our race between an amazing and relaxing long weekend on the Cape my AIL. We had dinner with my FIL and his wife, we ate a lot of delicious food, went for walks, shopped, watched sports and enjoyed each other's company. It was the perfect fall weekend, and we even made it back to Boston in time to take the little one on the bike trail near our house for some trike riding.

Learning how to ride from Dada!

Talking to Dada through the window on the Cape.

Happy October from this marathoner (sorry, I just can't get enough of it!).






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