Gruene (pronounced green) Marathon

   About midway through September Katie told me she found a great half-marathon to run that is actually on a Saturday.  Most races down here are on Sunday so I just miss out.  I went online to sign up and discovered that it was actually a combination

between a marathon/half marathon.  Same starting line, but the half-marathoners turn around a little sooner than the marathoners to head toward the finish line.  So, from that moment I had about 6 weeks to prepare.

   Training went...ok.  I only had about 4 weeks to really push myself to prepare because the last 2 weeks I needed to be sure my body was well rested.  I went running about 2 or 3 times a week.  I did do one big 12 miler, but I ran out of time before I could push myself to the 20 mile prep run.  It was tough to get out there for one excuse or another, but the biggest one is that there are no really "inspiring" places to run where we live. 

  The day before the race my mom came down and took me, Lisa, and Katie and Tom's family out to dinner.  We had a great time, but I think Katie can agree with me that we were just ready to get this race started.  It was great having the support from everyone.

   I learned something on race day...running a marathon is not one of those "shoot for the moon and land among the stars" things.  Meaning you should never try to "wing it" with a 26.2 mile race or assume that because you've run one before means you'll do just as well with much less training.  I'm sure others have probably felt it too, but there is something called "the wall" when running a marathon.  It's the point where your body starts to hurt more than you can ever remember, the mile markers seemingly get further and further spaced out, and you really begin to doubt whether you can finish or not.  Suddenly my mind was filled with negative thoughts not only at how I might not be able to finish this race, but of any other type of small shortcoming that I felt I had done in life.  Not a good feeling. 

   At mile 20 I thought I was done.  I walked for about 2 miles (quickly) and a volunteer on a bike went alongside me for awhile.  I got a little gatorade, some skittles, and then I was back in action!  I felt much better.  Lisa was waiting for me at mile 24 and she made the rest of the race very pleasant.

   All in all, it was a great experience.  Will I run another marathon? yes.  Will I train much better next time? absolutely.  Did I learn a lot of lessons about preparation, procrastination, and scheduling? Definitely.