26.2 miles

My San Diego Rock-n-Roll Marathon Experience

Phew...26.2 miles...I did it!! I accomplished my goal of running another marathon in my lifetime...but not so sure I'll do it again! (But that's what I said 5 years ago after my first one...and here I ran another one...so you never can say never!) After a 3:30am wake-up call, I was boarding a bus to the start line at 4:30am with all my friends from Team in Training. Yes...quite an early wake-up call...but then again, I wasn't getting much of any sleep because of the jitters! After I gear checked my clean/dry clothes the wait began for the....nope, not the start, but the porta-potties! Basically you get in line...do your thing & get right back in line to go again before the race starts! There was 29,000 people running the marathon & 1/2 marathon...can you imagine the lines for the bathrooms?! Anyway, after my bathroom stop it was off to corral #20 to wait for the gun to go off. It was great to have Marcus right beside me to calm my jitters & have my running buddy from Team in Training right beside me. It probably took us about 30 minutes or so to cross the start line & we were off!! The morning started off cool with June gloom full in effect. Unfortunately the marine layer burned off WAY TO FAST! It was probably 8:15am when the sun was out in all her glory...much to the dismay of us runners!! I felt great running...and it was awesome to see Marcus at miles 4,8, 15, & 21-26.2. We had talked about him running with me at the end...& boy was I glad to see him ~milepost 21. At that point in my run I was hot/hot/hot and sore/sore/sore...and on the verge of feeling sick/sick/sick. :( I probably wasn't the most fun to run with at that point (sorry, babe!) but...he did make the last push a little bit easier! Fiesta island seemed to go FOREVER...the sun was beating down on us...not an ounce of shade to give us relief. It was quite a change to run in that heat...when only a couple weeks ago I was training in long sleeve pants/shorts!! I crossed the finish line 4:39:01...not the time I had hoped for...but I pushed through the sheer pain & feeling like I needed to throw up! UGH.

I can't say enough about Team in Training. What an amazing organization!! I personally raised $4255.30, our team raised over $125,000, and all 4,000 TNT participants for this particular marathon raised 12 million dollars to help find a cure to cancer!! Isn't that just amazing! Starting way back on January 30th I could barely run 20 minutes without stopping...and now I ran 26.2 miles! WOW!!

A BIG thank you to everyone who made a donation to me...hopefully we will find a cure in our lifetime.