Austin MARATHON!

Yay! I'm done!

Izzy opens the cookies up (with her teeth) and Logan gives me a hug.

You can sort of see the pain my calves are feeling. Compression socks are a beautiful thing. I wore them all day after the race and slept in them and had zero soreness the following days.

Cookies. Yay!

#4! Izzy can't believe it.

Beer!


I got a PR at the Austin Marathon! WHOOP! So excited to have run it and run it well. It was a perfect day to run and so much fun! I was very very nervous because while I did the proper training, it was definitely the minimalist training plan. After numerous nightmares about forgetting my bib, D tag (the timing device), headphones, etc etc, my alarm woke me up and I prepared for the day. Coffee kicked in and things got moving. Brian dropped me off near the start line around 6:30am. Plenty of time for the 7am start. I immediately got in line for the port-o-potties and was there until almost 7:50am. Got to the start line just in time for the National Anthem and then was off around 7:15am. Started off great! Checked the trusty Garmin and saw that I was starting off a bit too quick, so pulled it in and tried to stay around 11 min/miles. It was hard because I was so ready to run the crap out of this race. I love hills and this race has them. So super nice guy chatted me up around mile 2 and was telling me how 'great' I looked. Um, yeah, it's mile TWO. It was still nice though. He was a cheerleader for all of us running around the same pace. I heard someone complain that her 'feet really hurt' around mile 5. I almost laughed. Come ON. It's a marathon or 1/2 marathon. Either you didn't train at all or you're a complete cry baby. Either way, I do not empathize. We finally got to the 'Survivor Mile' at mile 10 (I think). It's the 'yellow' mile. Almost everyone is wearing yellow and the street is painted in chalk with motivational sayings and there's fun music, etc etc. I was dedicating this to everyone I know/knew who is fighting the good fight against that stupid stupid cancer. I thought about people I had lost (my Grandmother) people I didn't know, but who had been taken way too early (Allison's Dad, Auggie), friends who are battling cancer and people who have kicked the ever-loving shit out of cancer (MY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!). There are many (so many!) other people and friends of friends that I know who are battling cancer. I really truly dedicated this mile to everyone batting and/or trying to cope with cancer or a cancer diagnosis. It's almost every single person in my life. I hope one day it's not like this. It was a very emotional mile. Cancer sucks. I want to punch it in the face. For that mile, I felt like we did just that. Austin, you kick some serious ass.

So after we split off from the 1/2'ers there's definitely a different feel to the race. There's a camaraderie that is so amazing. We are going 26.2 miles together. I was following a girl, ahem, woman, Allison, and her boyfriend(?) the entire time. They were doing such an amazing job encouraging one another. It was so fun to watch. I was also watching a Dad and his son (I'm assuming) encouraging each other to keep on keeping on. The son needed the most encouragement, which was encouraging to me! Keeping pace with a USMC dude was also pretty fun. He was amusing and kept telling us 'only 11 miles to go! ANYONE can do 11 miles!' I tried to focus on his calves that were firing at sinful rates. It was like watching 'The Human Body' exhibit with a live human. Pretty impressive.

I felt fantastic the entire race. Not something I'm used to. At all. My ass really started to catch fire the last few miles, but the crowds and Viv kept me in it. I had a plan to dedicate miles to my kids and to family members along the way, but that just went to pot. Honestly I was giving glory glory to my fist born the entire second half of the race. I tried to focus on Izzy and Logan for certain miles, but looking down at my shirt and seeing that precious face had me reaching for memories of Vivian. I thought about her and our life together the entire 2nd half of the marathon. I have really, really been trying to be thankful for the 2 years (and 9 months in utero) that we had together.

Around mile 22 I saw this uber-fit lady from my spin class. I wasn't sure if it was her or not and it was crowded at this point, to I didn't stop to chat, but I should have. She was having a really really tough time dealing with a knee injury. Thankfully her mom walked the last 4 miles with her. At mile 25 I saw Allison and her boyfriend again. She was walking and looked like she was hurting. I got all up in her face and told her she looked great and that I had been following her for 25 freaking miles and that she better not let me beat her. She looked like she wanted to punch me in the face. After running through campus I caught a glimpse of the capital and thought 'this is it! You freaking DID this!' I was so happy, but then I saw the last hill. Why why why do race directors think it's fun to put a steep hill at the last 800 meters of a race? I was NOT going to walk, but my calves were screaming. I trudged on. I made it up the hill and as we were taking on the final descent (!) for the last 100 meters I saw Izzy. Yay! I was SO happy to see my family! I stopped and hi fived and out of the corner of my eye saw Allison run past. She did start running again and beat me! I headed off to cross the finish line and was so happy I was practically dancing. I low fived the announcer guy with some serious gusto. He was probably thinking 'annndddd here's Allyson who just snorted some coke or meth or something.' He was a good sport and announced me. Of course I forgot to look up at the finish line, so my picture sucks as usual. I always remind myself to look up, but never do. Next race.

Since they gave out the shirts at the expo we didn't have the giant cluster eff that was the 2011 race. It was easy to navigate and even with my slower finish time there was still lots of food and water and stuff left. I met up with the family and ate some of Isabel's delicious cookies she brought. Yum.

It was a great day and I think it made an impression on Isabel. She keeps asking me about the race and 'last night when you ran that race way far away?' 'What was that called?' I'm like 'a marathon.' Over and over. She always goes 'yeah, that's right. a marathon.'