I'm a marathoner now!

I ran my first full marathon this morning! I will be thinking long and hard about doing this again :)

My training buddy and I ran the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon in Nashville. With it being such a hilly course, its not recommended for first time marathoners but we trained as best we could and gave it our best attempt!

We made it to mile 8 without stopping but the hills just became too steep so we changed to a walk-run strategy (i.e. walk up / run down). We cruised through the first 13.1 before the proverbial sh#t hit the fan. It progressively became harder and harder to continue running and by mile 20, we were both in pain. We pushed through and continued walk/running (more walking than running) to mile 24 where running no longer became an option. She tweaked her hamstring somewhere around the halfway point and I was in excruciating pain from just about the neck down. We walked to mile 26 and then jogged to the finish.

This race was 100% about finishing and not about times. There were just too many hills to be concerned with a PR or fast finish. We completed the run in 5:30 and couldn't be happier.

I've never been in so much pain in my entire life! I've been icing, taking antiinflammatories and resting since I got home. I have three weeks of recovery left before starting the training for the Country Music Marathon... Hopefully, by then, I'll have forgotten the pain and will continue preparing for marathon number 2. If not, I'll cross it off my bucket list and continue with my beloved half-marathon distances :)