"Good to be alive...right about now"

In the words of Ron Burgundy, I was a "glass case of emotion." Even with this only being my second marathon, I am a huge believer that a marathon brings out every possible emotion in a human being. I smiled, I laughed,  I got angry, and I cried. But at the end, I smiled because I knew I did the best I could.

Leading up to this day, I had no idea what would happen. I had done the training and figured out the nutriton, but my stomach was a mess, and still battled the question whether or not I make it through this race without a bathroom break. I gave up pace goals and instead focused on how far I could run before going to the bathroom. But the stars aligned and the sun gods shone bright, and it all came together for race day. And props to a little help from my favorite pharmacist for helping me figure out my medicine.

So here  breakdown of this monumental race:

Pre-race:
With anxiety high two days leading up to the race, race morning was fun relaxed with the help of the crazy runner girls. ( They were the biggest and blessed surprise is my running life which came to me on Labor Day weekend of 2015.) The ride downtown with the laughter and positive thoughts, and pre-race was filled with pictures and laughter at the JW, (and bathroom breaks of course.) The Runners Prayer with the Saint Malachy Ladies could not have been a better way to send me to the corrals.

Corral B: It was great to see my friend Jen and catch up on life and race goals. She is an amazing lady and a great person to talk to pre-race with a great goal in mind but the same time ease your anxiety. Even though I was anxious getting to the corral was just only 10 minutes till the start, that was more than enough time.

Mile 1-15: I felt freaking amazing.  Fluctuated between 7:55-8:15 miles, 1:47 half split. As much as I wanted to and told myself to slow down, I felt great and felt I can could maintain it, or close. Even if I dropped my last half to 8:30s I could still finish sub 3:40. I saw my family at 6.6 which was expected and motivational, but the fan base along the way simply amazing. The fan that stood the most on this stretch was out at mile 12 entering Broadripple, holding boxes of Kleenex out, because God knows my arm sleeves needed a break at that point! I did get a text my family at that halfway point they would not be at the IMA as through the planned, but I was OK with that

Mile 15-17: Honestly, I don't freaking remember. I think I was delusional at this point.

Mile 17-18: I started to realize that I went out entirely stupid fast. I was hurting, I was mad, and I was sad. I was getting close to IMA, where my family would've been, but got a text they wouldn't make it. Then I saw Dawn, who was like an angel, and gave me that umph. Her sign was the hard truth, but I loved it. That was the first time I cried that day.

Mile 18-19 (IMA): This is a beautiful mile because of the obvious, but started out a little sad because Jason and the kids had planned on being mile 18.8. I told him from the beginning not to make driving around stressful, so it was ok he didn't make it. I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't sad, because I was, but I also knew my husband is full of wonderful surprises. So I prayed my runners prayer and hoped he was there. And he was. As I rounded my way to the front of the museum I saw Jude's bright pink tutu. And I cried again. And stopped to kiss Simon, and I didn't care about time I took to stop. Hands down. Best part of my marathon. And I will never forget that moment. Toward the middle of this stretch Andy Grammer's "Hallelujah" came on my playlist. I had that on repeat atleast 3 times because it was "good to be alive, right about now." And it reminded me, I was doing something pretty awesome.

Mile 19-21: The high of seeing my family and choking down another gel lifted me another mile. Then I struggled. The 8:23 pace I needed to qualify for Boston was slipping away. Then seeing Jen and Beth at the Armory totally lifted me for another 1/2 mile, and downtown was in sight. This is also got me into familiar running territory of my days running after my work day at Riley...but I knew the dreaded straight away lies ahead.

Mile 21-23: It hurt. Even my shoulders hurt. I knew a sub 3:40 full wasn't happening, but a PR was for certain, so I didn't push. I focused on making my stride pretty for any race pictures at this point, but I'm sure it looked pretty ugly.

Mile 23-25: Downtown was visible. I stopped looking at my Garmin at this point. My pace had completely fallen off, and looking at it would do nothing but frustrate me. I continued to focus on a comfortable and pretty stride.

Mile 25-26.2: It was here...the fan base was arm to arm and I knew I would see my kids in less then 10 minutes. I rounded the last corner and saw Jude in her little bird hat, Simon in his Bears, and Jason, and finished hard. I crossed at 3:47.2, which was my original goal, and a PR by 8 minutes. So I cried, again.

Post-race: I staggered through the finisher area gathering my loot, noticing many runners being held or laying in the grass. That looked like a phenomenol idea, so many headed over to a nice grassy patch and laid there until my family found me.  And God bless my husband he had my PR donut ready for me devour. It. was. DELISH.

All in all an amazing day and journey. I owe so much to the girls that I logged many miles with that made running fun again. Watching those four strong ladies I met only 3 months ago, cross the finish line in was another highlight of the day. It was a great day to #bemonumental.