Marathon

Most of you heard this story, but just so I remember that I actually completed a marathon......

It was the hottest, most humid day on record for the Twin Cities marathon. What a lot of fun!

Unfortunately for me, nerves manifest themselves in the form of an upset stomach. I spent much time in the bathroom before the race began. Although I was satisfied that I would not encounter any bouts with runners' diarrhea, I was ill-prepared for the dehydration that I suffered as a result. Also, my watch stopped literally 5 minutes before Chad, Steph and I were dropped at the start and I forgot the cotton for my sensitive ears. My step-dad gave up his watch which helped, but the timer was little and hard to read while I was moving. For the record, the stomach problems subsided after I crossed the start as I knew they would because I didn't have to anticipate the race anymore.

I felt wonderful the first 6-7 miles, then I hit a wall. I was delirious and felt like I was going to collapse and I was dry heaving for about 7 miles before I finally had to vomit. I knew this was dehydration because of the pre-race problem and the heat. I cried multiple times at the thought of having to stop that soon into the race given that on training runs up to 20 miles I felt fabulous. Six miles in seemed pathetic!

I managed to keep about a 10-minute mile pace until I had to stop around mile 13. An EMS person made me take a break for a few, then I picked up as much water and PowerAde as I could hold and sipped it while I walked/jogged about the next mile and a half. I lost a lot of time, but I decided to give up the time I was pushing for in the interest of finishing.

Many people who saw me said I looked much better at mile 23 than I did at mile 11. Well I felt a lot better too. I managed to jog most of the last 4 miles.

I really appreciate everyone who came out to cheer. Everytime I saw Andy, I thought to myself, "thank God for Andy." LaVonne walking a half block with me and Darcie jogging with me all really, really helped as I was just begging my body to keep going. And when I heard Julie screaming "Carrie Yeager" I was so thankful it was someone I knew, because I had been hallucinating every few seconds hearing my name and seeing people that I knew were no where near Minnesota.

My mom asked me at the finish if I was going to do it again and I said, "hell no," but by Sunday night I had already determined my best strategy for fixing the areas I had gone wrong. Even Steph and Chad were feeling optomistic that there might be a round two by last night. We will see.

And my favorite part of the race...... when Jude ran up to us at the finish and happily yelled, "I can't believe it mom, you and dad won the race!!"

Chad finished in 4:30, Steph 4:56 and me in 5:09. I don't think 5146st place is technically a "win" but I did beat more than 3000 other people. :)