The Newman's: It is over!

The marathon, that is! What an experience it was! We drove down to central Florida Wednesday for Thanksgiving and since the day before, I had been having some digestive issues. I won't get into the details, but it wasn't fun. I thought for sure it would all be out of my system by Sunday, but it wasn't! It was a lot better on Sunday, but still not pleasant. I got up at 4:20 Sunday morning to leave the house by 5. It was really cold, but I knew it wasn't going to stay that way, so I had to just deal with it in a tank top and a jacket that I was going to leave with my bag at bag check. My sister and I headed to the start line and got in with our paces. I wanted to stay at a 9:55 or so pace and finish around 4:20 or 4:30, so I stood with that group. At 6:15, the jumbo-tron showed a space shuttle launch and had real smoke billowing around the jumbo-tron and we were off! The first 8 miles were great! I kept my pace and I was feeling good. Then around mile 8, I felt the familiar rumble in my stomach, so I had to stop and use the port-a-potty. I had to wait in line for a good 10 minutes and man was that port-a-potty gross! I told myself that I wasn't going to use another one the rest of the day. Well, that was false. The next one was even worse and it didn't even have toilet paper in it! Yech! Finally I got to the halfway point and my time was 2:21. After stopping twice, I could not get back in the groove I was in. I was so mad at myself because I was doing so good until I had to stop! The 2nd half was definitely the worst part. During training, I only got up to 20 miles and thought that surely, 6 more wouldn't be that bad after doing 20. Yeah, I was wrong. My dad was cheering us on at mile 20, so that boosted my mood a little. I was HURTING so bad and had to keep stopping and stretching my hamstrings and it felt like my tailbone was rubbing on another bone. Not pleasant!

This is at about mile 24.5. John, my mom, Kiley, Bryn, and my dad were there to help us finish! When I ran by, I told John "I am dying!!" but he said it just sounded like I barked at him! Ha! My mindset during the race went from "Alright, I can do this in 4 and a half hours!" to "Ok, let me just finish in 5 hours!" to "Oh my gosh can I please just finish!!"

Here is my sister giving Kiley a wave!

After I finished, they gave me a towel and I just took it, grabbed some water and a banana and layed down on the grass. So I did finish under 5 hours, but barely! My time was 4:59:44! Ha!