Crossing the Line!!

I did it! I finished the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in just under 5 hours! I am SO sorry for the delayed post and for all the pictures! Let me explain...I returned home last Wednesday and had to work the next 3 nights. Thursday, I had to get up for a bathroom break and when I stood up, I realized I was standing in water...not normal for my bedroom! Yes, there was a massive storm sometime between 7am when I went to bed and 10am when I woke up, which caused my bedroom and bathroom to flood. Ugh! Long story short, the maintenence people were in and out of my apartment for the next 3 days to replace the carpet. Therefore, I had very little sleep and had to catch up this last week! And to top it off, when I hit my car on the gate at my complex (completely different story!) it apparently broke the seal enough around the door that caused my car to flood as well. Double UGH!!! Thus, the late post about the race! Here goes...

Sunny San Diego!!! Or not. It was cloudy and chilly the entire time we were there! The next two are views from right outside our hotel...

And by request...a goofy face picture!!!

On Saturday before the race, we traveled out to Coronado and walked along the beach. It was very chilly, and I hadn't packed any warm clothes! We were going to be in sunny San Diego, after all! So I gave up on fashion for the day and borrowed one of Trevor's long sleeve shirts. The beach was still beautiful and it was great watching the waves!

We took a tour of the USS Midway, one of the oldest Naval aircraft carriers! It was very interesting....

The night before the race, Team in Training puts on the Inspiration Dinner, also known as the pasta party. This was such an amazing night! All the chapters of Team in Training from around the country gathered to carb load on spaghetti and hear inspiring stories of survivors and others currently battling leukemia or lymphoma.

This is the North Texas chapter of Team in Training! GO TEAM!!!

Then we come to race morning! This is my adorable nephew, sporting a Team in Training T-shirt and showing his muscles in support of my race! My sister put this picture in one of those musical cards. The song..."I've got the POWER!!" Haha, it doesn't quite have the same effect here, but trust me, it's greatness! Thanks for your support, Cohen! I love you!


Courtney and I the morning of the race! If our eyes look a bit puffy, it's because they are...it was about 4:15am in this picture!

We had to get up so early to be able to catch the shuttle on time to the starting line. Since this is a Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, here I am with a few of The Running Elvi! This group of people have Elvis tracksuits specifically made to run the Rock 'n' Roll races! They were fantastic!

The gun went off and it took us a good 10 minutes to even cross the starting line! There were over 13,000 people who crossed the finish line! Luckily, we had chips on our shoes that didn't actually start counting our official time until we crossed the starting line. There were SO many people all along the entire course offering support and words of encouragement! The first half of the race went by fairly quickly for me just because of all the distractions and the new course. I never did "hit the wall" that many runners talk about. I feel this is because I knew I was physically prepared since I had been training for this, and because we paced ourselves well at the beginning so we wouldn't be struggling so much at the end. When I hit 20 miles, I did have to start playing mind games with myself, telling myself, "okay, 6 miles left, this is less than one lap around the lake," etc. Finally, I hit the 26 mile marker and I could hear the announcer at the finish line shouting,"Sprint it in, you just have 0.2 left, you're there!!!" The adrenaline started flowing, I gave it all the juice I had left, and finished strong at 4:59:56...about 20-30 minutes faster than I had anticipated!!! I apologize for the gap in websites here. Click on this link to see photos of me throughout the race, as well as my finish line photo! I haven't decided which pictures I want to purchase just yet.

http://www.asiorders.com/go.asp?54279274

Meeting up with Trevor at the end was so great! He had flowers for me and we were SO excited to be officially on vacation! Thank you SO much for being there to support me, Trevor!

Courtney, Amanda, and I at the finish line! GO TEAM!!!

We went back to the hotel, and I sat in an ice bath (thanks, Melanie, for talking to me through that!). I was tired, but the adrenaline kept pumping for awhile afterwards. I was excited. No...I was ECSTATIC!! I did it! Running a marathon has been one of the top things on my list of things I want to do before I die for a very long time. And I did it. Not only did I accomplish a personal goal, but I was able to do it with an amazing team of people all with the same goal...raising money for leukemia/lymphoma research. A great big THANK YOU to all of you who supported me!

Needless to say, I slept like a baby that night! However, when I woke up on Monday morning and attempted to roll over...I felt like I had aged about 40 years! It took a few days for the soreness to work itself out. I also had a blister on my right heel, a blister on one of my toes, and I am pretty sure I'm going to lose a toenail sometime in the next month. Even so, I wouldn't trade that experience for the world!

NOW...it was officially time for vacation. Trevor and I went on a cruise that left San Diego the same day as the race. This is Catalina Island...where is the sun!?!?! We went on an hour long snorkeling excursion. The water was VERY cold! If it had been warmer, I would have loved it. At least now we know that snorkeling may not be our first line hobby!

This is a view of our ship, the Carnival Elation, from Catalina Island! It amazes me how huge these ships are!

These are a few pictures from our dinners. The food was fabulous!

There's the sun!!! We had about 3-4 hours of total sun time throughout the entire 4 days!

I'm pretty sure these putts are Tiger-worthy!!!

This is the final night of our cruise! :( If any of you have never been on one, I would highly recommend it! We had a great time!

Once again, thank you, thank you, and thank you, to all of you for your support throughout this training process! Team in Training raised $8.2 million for this race alone!!! Know that you made a difference in so many lives with your support! If anyone wants to train for a race now, let me know! I'm game to do it again!