Seattle Rock n'Roll Marathon Day

So the morning of the marathon we had to get up "dark & early." Seriously, we had to be on the bus no later than 4:45 am. Whew....early. But so exciting!! We boarded the bus & were on our way. We walked around & there were tons & tons & tons of people there. We found our corral, which was 32. For those of you who've never been to a marathon, they group you in corrals by the time you think you will complete the marathon. So the elite runners don't get stuck behind people who are just trying to finish a goal. Pretty cool I think. The marathon started at 7:00 but we in corral 32 didn't cross the START line til 8:00am. It took us a full hour to get to the start line. Crazy...there were so many people there. Anyway here's my pictures I took along the way...hope you enjoy.

Just a random photo showing lots of people....people put garbage bags on to stay warm so they could just throw it away when they didn't need it anymore. Weird, but I guess it's very common.
Here's Lisa. It was pretty cold at 5:30 in the morning.

Here's me in my sweatshirt, but my legs were freezing. I'm glad they had bag

checks cuz we didn't have to carry anything with us. We put everything in this bag & gave it to

the UPS drivers & then they drove them all to the finish line. Pretty cool.

Here's a crowd shot as we were moving towards the START line. Sorry to make you

tilt your head. I thought I rotated it, oh well.

Here's a shot of the START line.

Here's a picture of Me & Lisa right before we got to the START Line. There was a nice

lady that offered to take our picture. I ♥ when people are nice.

I know....portapotty picture? What the heck. I just have to say that these were possibly

the cleanest portapotties we've ever been in. They even had hand sanitizer in them. It was so

nice they were sooo clean cuz when you drink tons of water you gotta go like 2-3 times before the marathon even starts. Gotta stay hydrated.

We were even on the freeway & went through a tunnel so I thought I'd take a picture of the sign.

Here's mile 6!!! I can't remember what mile I actually started jogging but Lisa & I were not together at this point. I felt kind of bad for leaving her but the music on my ipod was making me want to go faster so she said go for it. The 1st 3 miles seem like a breeze & when I got to mile 6 I was like I can totally bump up from 5k's to 10k's......BUT from mile 6 to mile 7 I thought that they made the distance longer than 1 mile!!! Seriously that mile was TOUGH!!! I kept thinking where's mile 7 where's mile 7. The scenerey was great but I didn't get many pics cuz I didn't want to stop but apparently there was a Bald Eagle up in one of the trees. I probably wouldn't have seen it anyway cuz I never see the stuff when people say look at that over there. A lot of times I just say...oh ya I see it. Brad knows now that I don't see stuff & asks me if I'm lying. LOL!!

Just a picture of one of the oh so many water & Cytomax stations. Thank goodness for all these stations cuz that meant we didn't have to carry our own water. It was great!!

Besides having local bands playing throughout the whole marathon they had different cheerleading squads from all over the area cheering us on!! It was fun.

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It's funny because you see a lot of the same people during the marathon. I would see somebody & try to get to them or pass them or keep up with them. I met a girl (can't remember her name now) & we would go for a while & then she would wait for her sister & then she would catch up & so on & so forth. It was cool. I remember mile 12-13 was so hard. At that point I told myself that I really don't think there was any way that I could do a FULL marathon. Not another 13 miles----no way. But finally, finally, the finish line was in sight!!!

This was the best picture I could get without really slowing down. When I was crossing the finish line there was a lady that had passed us earlier that actually tap danced the whole way!! Crazy!! I'm not sure how she did that but I'm sure she's done it a few times. What a great workout for your calves. So the time at the finish line was at 4 hours but when I looked up my real time I had come in at 3 hours 29 minutes & some seconds. Lisa finished about 10 minutes or so behind me. I was only hoping to come in right under 4 hours but I totally surprised myself with 3 & 1/2 hours. Awesome!!!!

After I finished I found the Team in Training tent & sat down to wait for Lisa. I stretched & just watched. Had some oranges, water & cytomax. I'm still smiling. I was sore, but not totally dead.

Here we are!! Mission complete!!!

So here's my medal, number & shirt I wore. I wasn't officially on the Team in Training team but Lisa got me a shirt. One of the coolest things was that during the Marathon they had tons of coaches & other people on teams around the country & every time they'd see a purple shirt they would cheer you on & give you encouragement. There's nothing like having all that support to help you continue & finish. Woohoo...go team go!!!
All in all, it was a great experience & I'm so glad I was able to go & that Lisa asked me to to with her. I will probably do one again sometime, I'd like to do more training though. Now, it's on to smaller 5k races to finish out the summer. The greatest thing about it is that I have actually learned to enjoy jogging/walking.