I did it! I ran another marathon. The cheesiest marathon to be exact (Wisconsin Marathon) and it was pretty cheesy. I ran, I laughed, I sang, I ran, I questioned my sanity, I cried, I smiled, I ran, and ran some more and I finished 26.2 (or 26.55 according to garmin) in 4:13:24. I had hoped to finish closer to 4 hours but there's always next time! I still beat my last time and considering the craziness in getting there and that I only got 3 hours of sleep the night before the race, I'll take it.
We had hoped to leave home at 3:30 but all piled into the car at 4:33, one hour behind schedule in true Robbins fashion. With a 5 hour drive ahead of us we could still make decent time and were hoping for decent traffic going through Chicago. Just as we were pulling out of the driveway we got a call from Carmen, my friend who was also running the marathon and who we were meeting in Kenosha. They had broken down in Jackson, MI and needed an alternator and couldn't find one in Jackson. After driving around trying to find an alternator we finally found one and headed out. I think Jared may have been a little over confident in his ability to help Alan change their alternator. After 3+ hours they finally had the new one in. We called in some take out to the Olive Garden just up the road, loaded the kids back in the car and started to leave. The Hillstead's weren't following us, we circled around. Their car now wouldn't shift out of park. They must have done something wrong. It was now after 8:00 and we decided to call it a loss, loaded Carmen and her stuff in our car and headed to Wisconsin (after dropping her family off at a hotel). I felt terrible leaving Alan and their kids stranded in the middle of Wisconsin with a broken down car but there wasn't much more we could do. We finally got to Kenosha at 2am. A little less than ideal the night before the big run. I had quite a bit of anxiety at this point and didn't sleep great for the 3 hours I was in bed and finally got up and got ready for the race.
The forecast had said rain, which I was dreading. I was thrilled to head outside bright and early to be greeted by the sun! The first half of the race was great, I was keeping a good pace, just under 9 minute miles. The sun was shining off and on again, the scenery was gorgeous - right along Lake Michigan, and there was a good amount of crowd support. At mile 12 the marathon and half marathon split and it didn't take long to realize the marathon crowd was sparse. My split at the half marathon mark was 1:58 and change. I was doing pretty good! At mile 18 I could feel the exhaustion start to kick in and I started to slow, I was having a hard time keeping pace and was running around a 10 minute mile. After "holding it" for 4 miles I finally spotted a port a potty at mile 18.5 and made a quick pit stop. At mile 22 exhaustion took over, everything hurt, my arches, my toes, my ankles, my knees, my hips, my quads. I had muscles aching that I didn't even know existed. I asked myself why I thought running a marathon was ever a good idea and swore I would never do another one. Everything from the waist down was screaming at me to stop. I wanted to stop and walk, rather my body wanted me to stop, period. I couldn't stop. My goal when I ran my first marathon was to RUN a marathon, no walking (with the exception of the few steps it took to take a drink at the water stations). I couldn't let myself walk, so I kept on trudging. There was a lot of self talk going on between miles 22 and 26.
Just before mile 26 I spotted my boys and their neon signs cheering me on, my heart melted, I got a huge smile on my face and I started running faster. I blew them kisses and kept on trudging for the last little bit. They ran across a park and greeted me once again right before the finish line. They were the best (and cutest) cheerleaders ever!
I crossed the finish line and wanted to collapse. I kept moving and soon realized my teeth were chattering and that I could see my breath. It really was cold out there. I finished! A little slower than I would have liked but I finished! The post race party was very Wisconsin, brats, beer and cheese, go figure!
I was online 2 days later looking for another race. That's the crazy thing about running...it's very addictive.
