26.2 miles in 4:04:44.44

Yes, my marathon was this past weekend. And yes, I'm still feeling it. My goodness! I can't even describe to you the amount of pain I've been in! I'm feeling better today, but I'm still having problems sitting, standing, and going up and down stairs.

Okay, so I guess I should start at the beginning. I woke up Saturday morning at 3am to the sound of rain pounding against my window. I couldn't believe it. Of course, it just HAD to rain on the day that I'm running 26.2 miles. Needless to say, I couldn't fall back asleep. The nerves started kicking in. By 4:25, I'm leaving my house to go pick up my friend in Logan. Once I pick Corrin up we head over to the park. I could not believe how many people came out to torture themselves that early in the morning! Bathrooms were all full...lines seemed like they were a mile long. At about 5:30 we get on the bus to take the ride up the canyon to the starting line. Again, rows of port-a-potties with lines of people stretching out in front of them. At 7am the guns go off and the race has started! Luckily the rain had pretty much stopped by now. So, for the first little while I was doing fine. In fact, I felt fine until mile 20. Yep, by the time I hit mile 21, I was dead. My calves have never burned so bad in my entire life. My legs were heavy, my knees hurt, my hips hurt, blisters were forming on my toes, a rash had formed on my arm and side from wearing my ipod, my back hurt, my stomach hurt, my head hurt. Everything hurt. I was thirsty, I was hungry, I was tired. I honestly did not think I was going to make it. I wanted to stop, sit on the curb and call for someone to come and pick me up. I did not want to finish the race. I kept telling myself, "Cmon Kristen, you only have five more miles. Five miles. Thats it. Thats so easy. You run that all the time." It didn't matter. I was dead tired. Eventually, I made it...in the pouring rain. 4:04:44. My time was 4 minutes and 44 seconds longer than what I was hoping for. But I was okay with that. I knew I gave it my all and that I couldn't have done it any faster.

After I finished the only thing that kept running through my head was, "You never have to do this again." And on Saturday, if you would have asked me if I would ever run another marathon, I would have told you no way. Thinking about it today, if someone asked me to run one with them, I'm almost positive my answer would be yes.