I DID IT!!!

I left my friends at mile 12 and started out on my own we were running through a park and I was enjoying the scenery. The weather at this point was sunny, with a nice breeze. The temp was cool but not cold. At mile 16 our support crew was there and I switched water bottles and dropped off empty GU packets. There were hardly any trash cans on the route. Mile 18, my ankle started hurting and I walked just a bit, I was doing the 4 min run 3 walk. I met up with my parents between 21 and 22 and I grabbed advil from them, and pressed on. I met up with a girl who trains n Cincinnati and was using this race as a training run for the Pig in 3 weeks. We decided to finish together. At mile 24 they had beer, water and gatorade...I stuck with gatorade...my new friend grabbed a beer. The wind at this point was really strong about 35-40 mph....but we pressed on and we could see the hotel where the finish was so we were feeling really good about that. Once we could see the finish line we really gave it all we had left. They ran out of first time finisher medals but they are supposed to mail to us this week.

The race itself is predominately flat. There aren’t many spectators along the route. There were water stations every 2 miles. And most importantly they don’t close any roads for traffic, so we spend lots of time worrying about getting hit as the drivers certainly didn’t slow down. I am so happy to complete my first marathon. From the Steel Valley Tri Club we had 9 runners, 7 first timers and 10 support people. If I wasn’t a fan of GU before I am not...I faithfully did GU every hour and boy did it help with my energy levels.