Wanted to Wear my Zebra Flats

This past weekend I headed to Atlanta to run a full marathon! I was prepared for the run the be a training run and then do better (hopefully sub 4 hours) at Derby on April 28th. Trained pretty smart and headed to Atlanta ready to have some fun. Monica and I had a great trip down and did EVERYTHING right. Rested well, no alcohol, carbed up, ate plain foods etc... Except for one thing! This girl wore her "cute" zebra flats for the drive down and the two days before the race. By the end of the day Saturday my right arch was a little sore and tender. Slept with some biofreeze on with hopes of nothing coming of it.

Two girls ready to enjoy 26.2 miles of Atlanta at a 9:15-9:45 pace! Let's just say that plan was shot down pretty quick when we found at Atlanta was hill, after hill, after hill, after hill, after, hill.... you get the point.

Weather for the day: HOT and HUMID! Yeah I saw a shirt that said something about that; little did I know. We were drenched in sweat within minutes of running and our breathing was labored. Long story short.... we were miserable. On top of that my right foot kept feeling worse and worse. By mile 9 it was completely cramped up and I was not feeling like I had 26 miles in that foot. Finally mile 11 I told Monica I was done! Tried to make the best of it until mile 13 and I called it a day as a half marathon. Could we have finished? YES

Would it have been a personal worst? YES! By MANY minutes!!!!

Is it worth it to do permanent damage to my foot??? NO!

I have the Derby marathon in 6 weeks and I was not willing to give up running that race. It is in my home state and will hopefully have better conditions for running a sub 4 hour marathon.

I appreciate all the words of encouragement and those people that understand it was the smart decision to make. Unfortunately I have heard a few negative comments about my "quitting" the race but those people are not runners and for sure not marathon runners. They will never understand that I have one set of feet and I can't risk a permanent injury. There will be MANY more marathons, hopefully 45 more, and I was not ready to be sidelined for weeks to finish a race I was not super passionate about. Sorry if some people view that as a "weak" excuse or "quitting". I did not second guess my decision or cry about it for over 40 seconds. I listened to MY body and went with it.

The trip was a major success! Road trip with Monica. Great time at her sister's house. We relaxed, ate great food and went for a boat ride on Lake Lanier.

We both enjoyed some sights of Atlanta.... Olympic Park, CNN building and just having some good kid free fun! We had some great meals and enjoyed every minute of our girl's weekend!