Eugene Marathon

Guess what: running a marathon is not easy.  Who knew?
But I did it.  Oh my gosh, it was crazy.  On Sunday morning, I didn't hear my alarm go off and woke up a half hour late.  I scarfed down an English muffin with peanut butter and honey, a banana, and half a cup of coffee.  Jim and Trooper sped me over to my friend's house, who luckily lives a few blocks from the start, so we all walked over together.  The weather was perfect.  We lined up with the other 8,500 crazy people.  It was cloudy for the first half and eventually the sun came out.  We knew it'd be warm so wore shorts and our marathon t-shirts and my new Eugene Marathon hat.  I was so nervous.  I don't think my legs (especially my knees) ever fully recovered from my 21 mile run three weeks ago and my running partner has been nursing a bruised Achilles tendon for a few weeks.  We started a slow pace and felt fine until around miles 13- 15. Her boyfriend ran mile 8 with us, and at that point we were feeling great.  Jim ran mile 15 with us, and that's when things were starting to turn.  Tons of people cheer along the course, but most of them are during the first half, probably to see the Olympic athletes finish.  (The first marathon runner to finish this year came in at 2:22!)  After Jim left us things just got tougher and tougher.  It truly is a mental game.  We tried to practice our yoga teachings and just be in the moment, but it was rough!  We ate four Gus and finished all of the water in our fuel belts (probably because it was pretty warm and sunny for us) so had to start taking the water at running stations.  I had one bottle of electrolyte drink.  I didn't take the Gatorade until mile 24 in case it upset my stomach.  By mile 21 walkers and the elderly were somehow moving faster than us.  But we never walked and ran the entire time.  After mile 20 all we could do was focus on getting to the next mile marker.  The end felt really far away!  But we did it and finished on Hayward field.  Our official time was 4:59!  By that hour hardly anyone was left in the stands except our awesome partners and another good friend.  It hurt so badly to stop moving.  Luckily we collapsed in a beer garden for awhile.  I think that beer saved my life. 
Afterwards, we walked back to our friends' house and they made us mimosas and breakfast burritos.  (Glad to avoid the local restaurants as I'm sure they were packed.)  After 3pm, I camped out on the couch.  And except for going to breakfast to celebrate this morning (with another mimosa!) that's where I've been all day today. 
I'm actually a little sad that training is over.  We started the week of Christmas and ran around 400 miles in 18 weeks.  I don't know that I'll ever run a full marathon again, but I'm glad I did it.  I'm sure birthing a child is hard, but this was mentally and physically HARD.  I'll be sticking to the 5k and 10k life for awhile and maybe another half marathon (last year that only took me 2 hours!).  I guess it's time to put the breaks on the cookies and get back to being a little easier on my body. 
And just think: three weeks from today our little U-haul and Yaris will be pulling out of Eugene and heading back to Illinois!