Marathon #3!!!

I completed my third marathon this past Sunday! The marathon (26.2 miles) was in San Antonio, Texas, and was a "Rock 'n Roll" sponsored marathon which meant there were bands playing at almost every mile marker along the course. The journey to the finish line was certainly a long one that actually started in the summer. My official training program began during the second week of July, and I have spent the past 16 Saturday mornings doing my long runs. All in all, I logged 325 training miles! I did all of my running on the streets and sidewalks of Springfield and started between 5:30-6:30am on Saturday mornings. The picture below is the training schedule I've had posted on our refrigerator since the summer.

The marathon was in San Antonio, Texas, so Ross and I made a mini vacation out of it and arrived a day early to check out San Antonio. We went to the Alamo and the Riverwalk, but that was about it. We did do the boat tour on the river which was fun. San Anotino is a neat town, but we're just not the best of tourists so we actually ended up going to a movie Saturday afternoon to kill time!

San Antonio Riverwalk

It was really bright out!

The Alamo...not much to it!

The marathon was on Sunday, November 13, and started at 7:30am. We stayed at a hotel downtown, about a mile away from the starting area. We left the hotel at 7am and walked to the starting area to find this:

There were literally thousands of runners lined up for the race. A little over 30,000 runners participated in the race which consisted of a half marathon (13.1 miles) and a full marathon (26.2 miles). The majority of the runners ran the half marathon. As you can see in the picture, the day started off with cloudy skies, and the temperature at the beginning of the race was about 61 and slightly humid.

The race officially started at 7:30am, but I didn't actually cross the starting line until 8am! Each runner was assigned a corral to start in, and then each corral was released to the starting line at about one minute intervals. I was in corral 19 so that's why it took me so long to get to the starting line. I hated waiting that long to start, but this was actually a very well organized way of getting 30,000+ runners to start! 

Waiting to move up to the starting line.

I finally made it to the starting line!

Mile 3 near the Alamo. It was so much fun to see Ross along the course!

Ross was able to meet me at mile three and mile nine. It was sure nice to see him in the crowds! The first 2/3s of the race had spectators lined up along the streets cheering the runners on. The last 1/3 did have spectators but they were few and far between, until the final half mile. It is really encouraging to see everyone cheering us on!

There were water and Cytomax (like Gatorade) stations along the course, about every other mile at the beginning and then almost every mile towards the last 1/3 of the course. I took advantage of almost every water station! This wasn't my plan, but as the miles went on the clouds disappeared and the temperature warmed up. It was actually 85 degrees when I finished running! It was very sunny with no shade along the course and hot, so the water and Cytomax was definitely needed.

My goal was to finish anywhere between 4 hours and 45 minutes to 5 hours and 10 minutes. Anytime before 5:11 would be a personal record for me, and based on my training I was really on track to get that. Unfortunately, the weather was not on my side during this marathon. The sun and heat really slowed me down to where I ended up walking a lot of the last 5 miles. I'd try to run but would just feel like I was overheated and kind of see black spots in my eyes. I realized, too, that I had stopped sweating and know that that's not good, so decided to make my goal to just finish. I don't really feel like I hit "a wall" and I never really thought about quitting, I just wanted to get it done and get my medal! I finished the marathon in 6 hours 13 minutes. Definitely not the time I wanted, but I am very proud of all the training I did and that I did finish the race. I know I could have had a better time had it been cooler weather, but oh well, I finished!


I'm glad I did this marathon and all the training for it. I am a very driven person and love challenges. This was a challenge to myself, mainly because I did it alone. I did most all of my Saturday long runs alone. There were so many times I wanted to just turn off my alarm and sleep in, but I got up and did it, and for that I'm proud of myself!

I'll continue running because I do enjoy it. It keeps me in shape and just helps me feel good about myself. I don't think another marathon is in my foreseeable future. Not because of the outcome of this marathon, but because I don't feel like committing to another 18 weeks of training for at least another couple of years! I'm excited to not worry about going to bed early on Friday nights to have enough rest for my run and I'm excited to sleep in on Saturday mornings! Maybe someday later down the road I'll do another marathon. I ran a marathon for my 30th birthday so who knows, maybe I'll run another one for my 40th birthday! I definitely plan on doing more half marathons, though. Right now thinking about all of the long runs I did training for the full marathon, the half marathon training will be a piece of cake!

The finish line is in sight!!!!!

Almost there....

I finally crossed the finish line!

Very proud of my medal!

And very thankful for my husband who helped me put out water on Friday nights along my course to have for my run, who listened to all of my talking about my training runs and the marathon, who supported and encouraged me, who drove me to San Antonio for the marathon, and who waited on me during the marathon. Thank you Ross!