I DID it! I ran my first marathon!

There are so many thoughts in my head but I have to try to get them all out before I forget anything. It's 2 days post marathon and I am still walking like I am 80...things are slowly getting back to normal. So let me give you the general play by play of my first marathon adventure in San Antonio, Texas.

The event is the 3rd annual Rock N Roll San Antonio Marathon and Half Marathon. There were over 30,000 runners signed up for it, 27,000 people actually ran it. That breaks down to about 21,000 half marathon and relay people and 6,000 marathon runners, roughly. That makes for one VERY large crowd of people. I started in corral 19....way in the back. It was set up as a wave start, meaning, every 2 minutes or so they let a corral start the race. A cold front came through the day before, so the temperatures were in the 50's and it was cloudy. PERFECT running weather! Aside from a slight sinus infection all week, I was good to go.


I will admit I felt confident in my training and I knew that I was running the race with a seasoned marathoner, however, when we were waiting in the corral, I found myself just shaking like a leaf! I didn't realize that I was getting pretty nervous. All the anticipation of this day had been building up since March, when I signed up for the full marathon while at the expo for the Dallas RNR event. It was kind of a fluke, Roy said we should do it to commemorate my birthday...so we signed up. Flash forward to now, D Day has arrived and I am shaking in my running shoes!


Our corral was slightly delayed, unbeknownst to me, after an unscheduled train stopped 1,000 runners in corral 4 for about 5 minutes. It's finally our turn, no turning back now...Frank Shorter cheers for Meg and I as we start our race! Can I just tell you how much I LOVED having my name on my shirt?!!

We start off with a great steady pace, I had to reel Meg back in a little, I knew I had to pace myself. I can't be setting a PR for my half and still maintain that pace for another half after that. Meg made sure we stopped at the Alamo at mile 3 for our official race photo. Thanks Meg...pictures turned out great by the way. I will be buying all my race photos...all 24 of them. Somehow they went a little click happy on me. I felt like the paparazzi was at the finish line waiting on me all day.

I digress, miles 4-10 miles were pretty uneventful. The course was really flat, there were a few notable hills, but nothing like Tyler. It was extremely crowded though, the course was the same for everyone for the first 11 miles and then it splits off...thank the lord for that. Once we split off I could settle in for the ride and just run without worrying so much about pushing through the crowd for my walk interval.

Once I was at mile 15, I knew there was no turning back. I felt great, I just kept on doing my thing and checking out the scenery. There were several missions on the route. This was the first one, I think this is about mile 15-16.

Yes, I was still smiling here! I actually think I smiled most of the time. I was prepared, my training had me ready for the race that I knew was going to face. I did everything like clockwork. Every 4 miles I took my eGel, took my salt sticks and drank my water...without fail. All that worked like a charm. My only crux of day was from the start of the race, I had something on my contact lens and it drove me mad the whole 26.2 miles. At one point I even squirted my water bottle in my eye to try to clean it off. Note to self, carry eye drops in my pouch from here on out.

Meg knew so many people on the course, it was like I was running with a celebrity or something. Maybe it was just the name on my shirt. It was so nice to have everyone cheering for you...wanting you to do good and keep going. It was such a neat experience to have that level of support. I will add that the Rock N Roll events are so well equipped, you never need for anything. There were 18 water stops, 16 aid stations, cheer squads, bands every few miles, GU stations, even Vaseline on a stick for you.

I swear it sounds kind of weird to say, but time really flew by from mile 16 - 21. All the sudden I realized that we only had 5.2 miles to go! I felt great, I just stuck with my intervals. I rarely had to walk when it wasn't a walk break. I was in a groove and I liked it. Stopped at another mission, still happy! Mile 22 to the end, I finally turned on my iPod and needed to refocus a little and just get in another zone. I was making really good time, beyond my expectations, so I knew I had to buckle down and just keep moving. Just keep taking the cheers from the crowd and keep bringing it...I was really almost there! Mile 25 I see my honey, Roy was finished and he and Dave came back out to see us in. He gave me that final push to bring it home and finish strong. I walked a little more the last mile, so I could sprint up the hill at the finish line.

When I came running up the hill, there were so many people leaning over the rail, cheering everyone in! I half expected most of the spectators to be gone at that point, but there were tons of people...and they were yelling "Go Chris, you can do it!" So I did just that, I ran up the hill with my hands held high and tears in my eyes. I crossed that finish line with so much pride I thought I might just burst!

When I finished and got my medal, I see Roy and David, then I see my friend Lisa and Cassie. They ran the half earlier, went back, showered and changed and came back just to see me finish. That made be well up with tears again...it meant so much to me that they waited to see me finish. It is one thing to accomplish this, but it means even more to have people that you care about bear witness to it. Thanks ladies for sticking around for me!


So, my official time was 5:42:57. I have to say, it was way easier than natural childbirth of an almost 10 pound baby ;) Will I do it again? I would say chances are really high! Gotta get a new PR, right?

Date: 11/14/2010 7:46 AM
Distance: 26.6 miles
Time: 5 hr 43 min 21 secs
Average pace: 12:54 min/miles
Shoes: Mizuno Wave Inspire 6
Calories: 3658