Nationwide Insurance Columbus Marathon

I fulfilled my bucket list item and 2011 resolution by running in the Columbus marathon on October 16th. I don't think that I have been both as excited and nervous for an event other than my wedding and the birth of all of the boys. It was so exciting and there was so much build-up before the race.

I started to officially train at the end of May, and trained all summer long for this one event. It was so worth it.

Here I am on the morning of the race:



Here we are downtown:



Can you see me?



Ready to go!




My mom came over the night before to watch the boys so that Jon could come down with me. I'm so glad that he was able to do that because seeing him on the sidelines twice was a big motivator. Also as motivation, I wrote a list of people to run certain miles for. I kept miles 1-3 and the last few for myself because I knew I might be distracted, but for the meat of the race, I remembered or thought of or prayed for certain people who inspire me/have inspired me. I really used the list, too. I pulled it out about 5 times during the run to double check who I was running which mile for. It really kept me going and kept my mind in the right place, too. I also wrote down this verse that my friend Shelly gave to me: "those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will
run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Is. 40:31


They always set off fireworks as the start gun goes off.



Jon caught a shot of the front-runner in the wheelchair race:



Here I am at mile 9, where Jon first spotted me on the course:



This was after 20 miles. I will never forget that some people in the crowd gave out Yuengling shots at mile 18.



Tweet My Time was auto-posting my times as I crossed over certain checkpoints during the race. My Dad was also tracking me on the marathon's webpage. The system gave Jon a pretty good idea as to when I was going to pass by him.



Running along...



Approaching the finish! I'll admit, I started to cry when I saw that finish line.





Crossing the finish line at 4:19:08 from the gun








and here's the Tweet My Time post to Facebook



Just finished!




Then we went to Boston's and had some pizza and Yuengling to celebrate! I was pretty sore that afternoon and the following day, but then I felt pretty good after that. I am thinking that I might want to try to improve that time next year. We'll see if Jon lets me. It's a lot of training!