Marathon

It is now 2 days post marathon....I am still somewhat sore and moving slowly, but feeling pretty good, I even ran a little this morning to try and loosen out my legs!!

We got to Jax on Friday afternoon and stopped on the way in and picked up our packets.  The girls were WILD, so we went down to the beach once we got to where we were staying.

 Saturday we just laid around and rested up.  We tried to go to bed early but there were LOTS of people in a little space.  We got up around 4 to get ready and head to the starting line.

IT WAS FREEZING......and we had a long wait....this was a welcome site!!

 Amy and I stayed together until around mile 3 and then I was on my own:)  There were lots of people tracking us through the NRace app, which was great!!  I received so may text, everytime I felt my phone buzz it pushed me a little bit more:)

We started running on the beach a little after mile 6, I was worried about this but it was actually not bad.

We knew we would see the family around mile 10.5.

 At this point Amy was only about 5 minutes ahead of me.

 Of course I spotted them before they saw me....there were lots of pink shirts and black Capri's:)

 Had to check my blood sugar which was perfect!!

 Miles 11-24 kinda all run together...it was long, it was hot, it was cold.  There were lots of distractions which were good.  At about mile 23.5 we go up an on ramp to the major highway....it was ROUGH!!

At mile 24 we crossed the intercoastal....

 We got off the highway at mile 26...at this point I was so ready to be done!!!!

The rest of the pics are from various cameras....and times.  The fam had to take buses from the start to the finish line.

 Amy coming in

 FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!

 My time was more than I hoped, was actually about 5:23 but I did finish and did not die so I am counting it a success!!!

 Melissa and Kayden came down and she took some great pics!!

 Amelia and I

 Crazy Avie

 with the parents

Avie fell asleep on the bus ride back to the start....it was just the power nap she needed.

 This journey has been a long 9 months.  I started training right when we got back from our Keys vacation in June.  I had every single day planned on what I was suppose to run.  I did not always stick to the exact plan but never varied too much.  There were times I DID NOT WANT TO RUN, there were times when I missed events, went to bed early, did not eat what I wanted, and had to get up at the crack of dawn to get my runs in.

My girls were always excited to ask me how many miles I had done, especially on Saturday's.  They loved, and in fact laughed hysterically when I had to take ice bath's and would about cry as I sat in the water.  Donald was so supportive, during the race he texted me LOTS about how good I was doing.

My other family was supportive, in fact as I came out of the bathroom from taking a shower after the marathon Anna was there clapping for me:)  They kept the girls, cooked supper and helped when I needed to rearrange things based on runs.

There have been two questions I have been asked over and over...was it hard...umm YES!!  First of all to do the same thing whatever it is for 5 hours is hard....especially when it is running!!    The other is will you do it again....I have compared the marathon to childbirth...hopefully the further I get away from it the less I will remember of the pain and just see the accomplishment (baby).  At this point I know I will do a half, in fact I am signing up for one today that will be in April.  I have looked at another full in December but will probably wait a couple more weeks to be sure!!