My first marathon, The Cleveland Marathon

I finished.

My goal was to finish, and I did. Standing at the starting line, I wasn't sure I'd be able to go 26.2 miles. Even at mile 12 I still wasn't sure, but once I passed by the half marathon turn off point, I knew I'd finish, because I HAD to!

Race day conditions were almost perfect, I made it to downtown Cleveland without any problems, and I found myself SUPER lucky to be able to park right by the start/finish line. (HUGE, HUGE thank you to Liz F.)

After chatting in the parking lot, I dropped off some clothes at gear check, used a restroom in the Brown's stadium with NO LINE (that was a BIG bonus in my book), and then met up with the Grunt Girls and some other friends.
Here:

Just before heading to the starting line:

While standing with Stacy and Patty at the starting line, we were joined by Jen C and a friend of hers. It was so nice having others around that I knew. The gun went off, and about 5 minutes later we finally crossed the starting line to begin our race. We barely moved for the first mile, but I was near the 4:30 marathon pace group, and happy with that.

Every now and then when the road had some pot holes or was uneven, I had a little knee pain, but nothing too bad.

Miles one through six: 11:08, 10:21, 10:08, 10:49, 10:26, 10:45.

At mile seven Heidi caught Patty and I here:

I continued with Patty until she split off for the half-marathon finish. I was worried I had been going a bit too fast though, and slowed up a bit.

Miles seven through twelve: 10:50, 10:50, 10:57, 10:53, 11:12, 10:51

I think this is when the 4:45 pacer caught up to me, and I believe they pulled away from me just as quickly as they approached. I was happy with my 1/2 mary time, but knew I needed to slow down to get through this whole thing. I even got a bit emotional when I made the turn WITH the other marathon runners. I had never made that turn before. WOW, I then knew there was no where else for me to stop until I got to the END.

Miles thirteen through seventeen: 10:40, 11:06, 11:56, 12:49, 12:43

At mile 17.5 I looked at my garmin and realized I had never run this far before, so I stopped running to walk. I'm not sure why. It was like I was happy to have made it this far, and anything more was just a bonus. Yes, my training should have including more distance, but I was worried about my knee. So, I walked for .3 miles, found an empty port-o-pot to use, and then decided it was time to run again.

I enjoyed running down MLK. I was running alone now. Well, no one I "knew" was around me. This gave me lots of time to think. :-) I did chat with a few strangers. I even found a guy from Cincinatti that had completed the Full Rev3 at Cedar Point while I was there doing the half last year.

The rain drizzled on and off. Most of the time it wasn't too bad and almost feld good. A pic from somewhere in the second half:


Miles eighteen, nineteen and twenty: 14:52, 11:53, 13:07

THEN, the FIVE HOUR pacer caught up to me. I didn't want to let her get away, so I sped up to stay with her and the few runners hanging on as well.

Miles twenty-one and twenty-two: 11:29 and 11:48

BUT, I had to let them go. I was tired.

Miles twenty-three through twenty-six: 14:13, 14:46, 13:30, 13:11

It was a shuffle at this point, but I was finishing. When I saw the "MILE 26" sign, I got a bit emotional again.

I ran the last .2 and celebrated.



Final Time: 5 hours and 13 minutes