1/10th of the way there!

On Sunday I ran the Marshall Marathon in West Virginia which makes #5 ! Only 45 more states to go. The hope is 50 by 50 : ) or sooner but I am going to have one more year and then back down once I have to start flying.

I do not have a really long race recap and I do not have any pictures at all. My friend Crystal as some on her blog; see Am I Runner or just crazy in my side bar.

The race is small and there are no frills. Expo is strictly a packet pick up and takes a matter of minutes. The parking is great because you can park within feet of the start line and there are no lines at the potty! No starting mat so your time is just gun time (probably was like a 15 second difference for me at the most). The course is a 2 looper now and that is not that much fun. However, there was a really nice part by the river and you were able to that 2 times and 1 river part like 4 times. The only thing I like about running the same thing twice is that you know where the up hills and down hills are so you can plan any stops or walks around that.

My goal is still obviously to make sub 4. I knew this race was not going to be but knew I should do closer to 4 hours since that is what I would have done in Erie if I had not had my meltdown. So to cut to the chase.... I ran it in 4:03:18 (clock time) 4:03:14 (Garmin time) 4:03:23 (results time) which is around a 9:13-9:17 pace. So close to that 3:59:59 at a 9:09 pace : ) I wish I had ran my first half a littler faster. I think it was 1:58:30 but I was TALKING to someone I had met! Imagine that. But I LOVE talking to other 50 staters and finding about other races. I put my iPod in around mile 14 and was super pumped up! Eminem had me nailing some 8:45 miles for a little while and then around 18 I started really feeling the pain from my "fast" running. I really hung in there until 20.5 and I started to slow down. I had little burst of speed but my mile 24 I was hurting! I knew it would take 9:00 minute miles to make it in under 4 hours so I just accepted by PR and ran a steady pace in.

I am excited to say I finished a marathon WITHOUT crying and was actually smiling. I even gave a little "woo hoo" when I crossed the finish line with my football!