I had an AMAZING weekend in Houston! Sorry to have such a delayed post, but recovering from my race/trip has been easier in some ways than I expected and harder in others. I was only there for 3 days, but there was sunshine each day and it was beautiful! I am a sun girl, I’m happier and have way more energy and motivation when the sun is shining. I’ve had a hard time adjusting to not seeing it since I got home.

The marathon was great, it hurt, but I finished! I didn’t get the time I wanted, but on your first marathon, any time is a PR! 🙂 My official time was 5:47:58, finished with not much time to spare. I actually started off with a very good finishing time, but it was a bit faster than I usually can maintain and my joints definitely paid for it. I did do some walking at the end, and I got pretty upset with myself for it, but it’s ok! I had a really good team of motivators, and I don’t think I could have done it without them.

My bff Allison lives in Houston with her family, her and her husband Charlie were my super fan club. They raced around and met me at different areas during the race. At mile 18 she had a poster they printed off of my kids holding a poster and I was crying, it was totally unexpected. Even though I don’t see her often, this girl has a huge piece of my heart. I think you get few friends in life that mean as much to you as Allison does to me. If she needed me I’d be there for her in any way I could, even with all the miles between us, and I am sure she feels the same. Sometimes you get lucky, and you have a friend for life, even when the world separates you. 🙂

I got to run with 2 awesome distance runners, the marathon was like a training run for them. One ran with me until about the half way point and the other got me across the finish line. On Saturday I met Kevin, the man who got me across the finish line, and Sunday morning I met Jean. It’s amazing to me to have 2 people, pretty much strangers, be so uplifting and motivating. They really made me feel like I could do it, and like I was a person who mattered. They took time to run with me, and lift me up and it made a huge impact on me.

I was also hugely impacted by all the true strangers cheering along the entire race course. Wow! I told everyone I am going to have my kids make signs and we will go to the next big race locally and just cheer for strangers because it made such a huge impact on me! If you ever feel like you want to help others, an easy way to lift people up is to just go stand around mile 18-24 of a marathon and cheer!

I was pretty resigned that I wouldn’t run another marathon again, but now I’m having second thoughts. My biggest worry is that it will impact my racing/training schedule for my horses, so we will see how it goes. My joints do not like running past mile 20 or so, but if I lost a little more bulk they might be ok. Only time will tell. I really like my medal, and honestly I was only really sore after the race when I was sitting around and on the flight home. I took Kevin’s advice though and wore my medal on the flight, it was kind of an explanation I think to those looking at me wondering why I was walking so funny. 😉