Sunday, March 20, 2011

Mission Accomplished!

Today, I ran a marathon.  The Yuengling Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA, to be specific.  It was great.  Totally great.  And I will be sore for days!

We drove up to VA yesterday for a leisurely day of shopping and hanging out.  We first went to the Race Expo to pick up our packets.
My race bib.  I love that random people know your name and can "personally" cheer for you.


Mallory, me and Michelle.  The best running partners EVER!

After the Expo we went to lunch at Baker's Crust. Yum! But it took forever. We only had time for Trader Joe's and Target before heading to our hotel.  We got our act together and put on a few more layers (it got COLD!) before heading out to a great dinner at Isle of Capri.  Yum again!

The girls, ready for dinner!

The view from the front door of our hotel.  We got a little silly and a lot like 3 middle school girls at a slumber party!  The only difference-we didn't stay up all night giggling.  We were asleep by 9:30!

This morning we woke up before our alarm went off and got dressed for the race.  We were lookin' good!  We got a lot of comments about our shamrock tights along the course!

The shamrock capris.  Yikes!  Cute little shamrocks around the knees. . . Giant oversized shamrocks around the thighs and butt! ;)

The wind was howling, the temperature was really cold, and we started 15 minutes late.  Other than that, the start was great!  Mallory was not able to run, due to some health problems, so she was able to take a few pictures of us along the way. 

Can you believe there was someone else wearing the shamrocks?  The girl in the shorts was not with us!

The first 20 miles were fine.  It was after that that things got pretty tough.  We started to walk through the water stations and walked maybe a tenth of a mile another time, just to get through it.  We knew that Mallory was going to meet us at mile 23 and run us in the final 3 and I have never been so happy to see someone in all my life!  She was there at just the right time.  Michelle moved on ahead a bit and Mallory stayed right with me.  She even took my picture!

I don't really look like I've run 25 of 26.2 miles!  But I promise I was feeling it!
The last 2 miles were like torture, if I'm being honest!  Thank goodness I had Mallory with me or I might have started walking.  She encouraged me to finish strong, and finish strong I did.  My final time was 4:59:23.  My goal was to run it in less than 5 hours and I accomplished my goal!  Hooray!  I'm very pleased with myself.

I ran a marathon today.  I can't believe I just wrote that.  And I plan to write it again some time in the future.  Just not the near future!  Or even the sort of near future!  It will be a while but I think I will do it again.  I feel amazing.  Even if I can't walk tomorrow!

3 comments:

Y Mama said...

Congratulations Lori!! What an awesome accomplishment!!!

Lauren said...

Way to go, Lor! I still am amazed you ran that far!! Awesome!

Rendy said...

You are amazing....with or without the marathon. I'm so proud of you and your commitment to reach your goal. You go Bug!