Marathon day!

Here we are, morning of the big event. This is Allison, me and Cynthia all ready to go. We were bright eyed and bushy tailed at 4:45am in order to be ready for pictures at 5:15.

Here are my legs and shoes...Go Legs Go! You can see my timing chip on the right and my emergency tag on the left. I was hoping that information would not be needed.



The team...some are running the half marathon and some are running the full marathon.


That morning I met up with my friend Julia and a couple of her running buddies.

Another TNT member Alli also met up with us. With 20,000+ people all in Union Square it was quite the party at 6:30am. It took us 9 minutes to get to the start line after the gun went off. Then we were running through downtown! It was nice to see women from all walks of life on the course. There were even wheel chair participants!

Along the course this was one of the loveliest downhills. It was nice and long...just like the hill we had just climbed. The weather was perfect, breezy and cool. All along the course there were coaches and staff members of Team In Training cheering us on. I had put my name on my shirt so that people could call out my name and cheer me on. I loved that!



There were many signs such as this encouraging us to get to the end. I also had a name of someone for each mile I was running, i.e. Ursula was mile 5, Grandma mile 6, Uncle Fay mile 7, etc.


The race was so great for me until about mile 16. Up until then I was feeling great, I had a great 1/2 marathon time and felt like I could still make my goal of 5 hours. It was then I started to notice that my right knee was giving me problems. I stopped to walk for a minute and it started throbbing so much that I had to take my weight off of it. It felt better to run than to walk. That can't be a good sign! I continued running up this hill that went on for 3 miles! When I got to the top I stopped for a minute and almost started crying as I didn't think I'd be able to finish. This was at mile 19 and I still had 7 more miles to go! That's when Rhonda, a coach from Portland, caught up to me and asked me how I was doing. I told her about my knee and she sprayed some Biofreeze onto my leg. This helped to numb it enough so that I felt like I could finish the race. She also gave me a gel form to put on whenever I felt like I needed to. That was a lifesaver. Without that I don't think I would have made it. Note to self: never run a marathon again without biofreeze with me. After I left Rhonda we ran around this rediculously big lake, ate chocolate and came to the top of the 3 mile downhill to the finish. This is where I saw my coach Bill who ran with me for a little while and walked with me for a little while and Kat, another team mate caught up to me. From then on Kat and I ran together in to the finish (I think she helped me more than I helped her). It was wonderful to have someone by my side, pushing me forward and helping me to not think about the pain! We held hands and cried across the finish and felt so empowered by what we had just accomplished! Thank you Kat for getting me there!

The finish line with the firemen in tuxedos handing out our necklaces.


Me and Kat after we finished. We were both very emotional when we saw the balloons and the finish line. What a great feeling that was to cross!


My overall time was 2:25...for the first half! and 5:35 for the whole marathon. Now I have a time to beat and will be choosing a flatter course for my next marathon.

My Tiffany & Co. necklace. It says "Run Like a Girl". I have loved this journey and will definitely be running another marathon in the future.



Love you Ursula, Grandma and Uncle Fay. Thank you for making this such an important journey, for your love and support.

Thank you to all those who donated money, time, support, and encouragement. I have appreciated it all and hope that I can give back as much as I have been given.