run like the wind!

Well, or run with the wind, and rain and pain! That's what I felt like my first marathon experience was! It was a chilly and rainy day last Sunday of the race, but I managed to survive somehow.  The first 10 miles I was doing ok, ran across the 1-90 bridge and that part was definitely chilly and cold with the wind blowing off Lake Washington on all the runners. Then when I was running along Lake Washington Blvd, I had the best surprise ever! Cheering for me on the sidelines were not only my mom and Richard who I knew would be there somewhere along the race, but Tiffany, Emily and Lara. It was the best feeling to have so much support, I was blown away with excitement and happiness! Come mile 13 I started to feel a lot of pain, my wet socks were rubbing back and forth causing a blister to form on my right pinky toe, so every time I stepped down it hurt quite a bit, but I managed to trudge through it. Around mile 14 I saw my cheering group again as I headed  back their way out of  the loop I did around Seward Park. From mile 16 to the finish my knees and hip flexors were definitely starting to ache and scream pain and my muscles got very fatigued and started cramping in the cold weather. The what use to be warm dry gloves were now soaked and my hands started to get very cold! My music stopped at about mile 18 and somehow got bumped offline, so that was definitely unexpected to not have the running playlist going that I carefully selected! Luckily my phone wasn't broken, just the Spotify somehow timed out and went offline and in my tired and delirious state I couldn't figure out how to switch it back to online mode, so I transitioned to Pandora radio for some upbeat tunes the rest of the race and tried to tune out the commercials.  I hear you hit a wall at around mile 20. Well I sure did at mile 18 onwards. Positive thinking was all I could do to just keep going and not stop and call Richard to pick me up! I just kept reminding myself every time I would walk a few feet for a break or stop and stretch from that point on, it would take me that much longer to get to the finish line. So I kept saying to myself, you can do it, keep going, you can do it...over and over. And imagining a hot shower, thai food and my sweatpants and  comfortable couch waiting for me at home!

At the finish line some more friends surprised me and were there cheering, which was also another wonderful surprise and made me feel so special! Thank you everyone for all your good luck text messages the night before and a huge thank you to everyone who came to watch me during the race even though the weather was a bit miserable. It really meant a lot to me to have so much support and love!  I am one lucky girl to have such great family and friends!!!

 Before the race, wearing my make shift garbage bag poncho to stay dry