Marathon Recap

I ran in,

trained for

and completed 

a marathon.

And damn, now I'm proud.

I think my toe nails are falling off,

I can't hardly walk on my right foot

and the chaffing under my left arm is intense,

But the whole thing is done.

It was an insane experience.

It started out all hunky-dory,

the first ten kilometers were peaches and cream.  

Everyone was chatty - it wasn't too hot

there was a lot of downhill.

I even entertained ideas of running another one.

(Crazy, that's crazy)

The second ten was pretty good.

I saw Shane around kilometer 13.

He was screaming and cheering, it was awesome!

I loved seeing him there.

All the way down the ocean we ran.

The third ten was getting hard.  

I was getting too warm, my feet started to hurt.

Mom, Steph and Hunter were waiting for me at kilometer 27.

The were loud and encouraging,

they even had a colorful sign that said 

"Alyssa you're awesome!"

I was so happy to see them.

I was getting kinda down.

This is when I started my run-walks.

The fourth ten was hard.

Really hard.

We crossed the bridge into the final leg around Stanley park.

It was all mind over body here.

I forced myself onward, one step at a time.

I told myself I wasn't nauseous,

I lied and said my legs were fine.

It helped, breathing through it all helped.

A bird pooped on my arm (that wasn't awesome).

The last five kilometers we're the hardest (and longest) I've ever run.

My legs were shaky, I wasn't sure I could run anymore.

I called my mom with 2.6 kilometers left, 

she wasn't going to able to see me cross the finish line.

I had aways to go and it was almost 1pm,

she had to leave to make it home for work at three.

I was so disappointed, I wanted her to see me cross!

I'd been running 6:30 the whole way until the last 10km and now I was too late.

After I called her I felt much less stress.

I walked for most of it, running as much as I could.

When I reached the top of the final hill I saw the longest corridor ever in front of me.

So many people were screaming and cheering, I had to keep running.

The called my name and told me to keep going, 

I saw Steph on the side

and I finished.

I missed mom by five minutes, but I was done. 

4:55:04, official time.

That was a once in a life time event,

an awesome experience to have under my belt.

The best sign of the day was at the very beginning of the race

"This sounded like a good idea four months ago"

It's totally true,

that's why I laughed out loud.

I did it to prove to myself I could

and I'm so glad I did.

Now I know I can do anything.