10.10.2010- The Journey has officially ended

It is crazy for me to think that I have actually run a marathon. I am not sure if I need to remind you all, but this is coming from the girl who's parents had to force her to do sports because she was sitting around eating too many "lunch cakes" after school. Athletics has never come easy to me. There is a reason why I jokingly put on the track shirt I created in high school "The faster Beattie" - sarcastically inferring that I was faster than my track star twin brother Doug.

There are so many things I want to talk about, but it is almost hard to recall them all. I feel like I am experiencing what mom's have told me they experience after they have a baby. Yes labor's hard, but eventually they all forget about it because they start trying for a second. I distinctly remember looking at Dan not even 2 seconds after we crossed the finishing line and saying "Never again" and what was I saying not even 24 hours later? I think we could do another. Running does this to people. It's this crazy addiction that you can't seem to stop.

The actual day of the marathon was such a blur. We were blessed to stay in a hotel with my parents so our day didn't start at 4:00 like some of our other friends who ran it. I was up bright and early at 5:55 a.m. drinking water, shoving a banana and granola bar down my throat, tattooing my mile splits to my arm, and stretching. After we walked to the start, I realized I had to go to the bathroom. Up until this part of my morning it was pretty go-go, so this part seemed to take FOREVER. All the lines were so long, but thankfully Becca and Dan waited for me, even though we got into the start line of 45,000 people after 7:30 (the time the race started). Don't worry though, because once we got in line, it took us 25 minutes to cross the start and actually begin running. Our first mile was quick; we signed up to run with the Nike pace group to finish in 4 hours and 45 minutes and because of my long bathroom break, we had to race to catch up to the pacer. I was definitely tired by mile 2, but there were SO many people cheering us on I seriously barely remember the first 10 miles. Which is weird for me to even type, but it honestly went by so quickly. My parents, brother, and his fiance were at mile 1 and then mile 3, and then again at mile 12, so it was fun to search for them in the crowds, and it gave us something to do. I feel like I was with the two most enthusiastic runners- Dan and Becca were running around giving everyone in the crowd high five's- meanwhile I was just trying to survive - no fun for me. Knowing my luck I would trip and sprain my ankle.

Then hit dreaded mile 14. I start to feel myself getting tired and I look over at Dan and he is not looking good. I ask him how he's doing and he tells me he has the chills, is getting dizzy, and feels like he is going to throw up. These are all not good signs to have in general, but especially not good while running a marathon when it's hot outside. Let me take you back to about 24 hours earlier, when Val (who ran the marathon as well) explained to us how if you start to get the chills, feel nauseous, get dizzy, and your face goes white, you need to stop immediately because you could die- she said she has witnessed 2 people die running marathons in the hot weather! At that point Dan had 3 out of the 4 symptoms and it had reached about 85 degrees. I'm about in full panic mode. Dan knew he had to keep drinking Gatorade to replenish his sodium and electrolytes, but at the same time he couldn't keep that down and that is what was making him throw up. For the rest of the marathon I was basically focused on Dan and keeping him alive. (Dan would say I'm being dramatic, and maybe I was but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared!) I seriously cannot believe that he actually finished in under 5 hours. Even though he was throwing up and feeling terrible, he still managed to run 12 miles in that pain. Crazy. If that was me, I would have been crying on the side of the road saying "I can't do it." He is seriously such a trooper. Obviously, it was a bummer to train for 5 months to run this race, and to NEVER have a bad run- seriously Dan has done so great on all of our long runs (It's me who's the weak one), and then on race day he had to experience this :( Such a bummer. So, when we saw mile 25 in the distance, I looked at my watch and saw it was 4:49. I looked at Dan and said "We can still do this in under 5 hours if you can run this last mile in under 11 minutes." He looked over at me and said "Let's do it" and then we took off. So, we did it. We finished. We ran 26.2 miles. We crossed the finish line at 4:57.

So thoughts afterward? Tonight I heard Shauna Niequist speak- the author that I have referred to earlier that wrote "Bittersweet" and "Cold Tangerines"and it was such a treat to see her in person talk about her book. She actually ran the marathon and brought up a great point- after you run the marathon you kind of want everyone to know- and pridefully find ways to bring it up. I passed our Christian Ministries professor at Trinity who asked me how work was going and I somehow was able to turn it around like this: "You know it's not too bad, but I am just exhausted because I ran the marathon on Sunday." I can't help but crack up as I read this because I totally just turned that conversation from work..... to me running the marathon. I think the reason why I can't stop thinking about it is because it's something I never imagined I would do EVER (ask Lisa, Neff, and Finn, my high school track, cross country, and running partners lol)

I feel like there is so much I took away from this experience. Not only did I show myself that I can be disciplined- I can wake up at 6 a.m. on a work day and go on a 7 mile run if I have to. Never would I choose to do that, but if the training told me to, I would do it! It also brought Dan and I closer together. It was such a great experience to know that we finished together and trained together. Some of our best talks were during our long runs- about counseling, Jr High, and our future. The Lord really used that time and the actual marathon to grow us closer together. Shauna talked tonight about really experiencing life. Running a marathon is an experience I will never forget. Especially the Chicago Marathon. The whole city rallies behind it and there are so many people that show up to support you it is incredible. I really have to say that Dan was the one who pushed me to really run this. If it wasn't for him I never would have signed up for the Walter Payton race, then I never would have done the Chicago half, and so on and so on. I almost teared up a couple times when I saw what people were running for - people that have lost children, parents, friends, some ran for a cure for cancer, other for World Vision, etc. For a lot of people that day this was a really big accomplishment and meant more than just running the miles- it was great to be apart of that.

I do have to say I will miss our long Saturday morning runs- but only a little. I am happy when I think about how I don't need to be careful about eating Chipotle on a Friday because of those long runs on Saturday morning. But, speaking of food, I know I will miss the fact that I was able to basically eat anything I wanted and was able to stop tracking my calories on Livestrong. That is not going to be an easy transition to make. But, with my friend Becca already sending me emails about a half marathon in April, I'm sure I'll be back on a schedule soon :)