Ben Joined the club!

Ben's Uncle Wayne told Ben he is now part of an elite club of "the few, the proud, and the insane"....aka a Marathoner!

I can't remember how I convinced Ben to run this marathon with me, but I'm sure glad he did! And once Ben's feet feel better I'm sure he'll be glad he did also.

Training for this marathon was tricky for us. I know couples probably do it all the time, but for us it was hard. Ben would either run before work or after. Then I would go after the girls went to bed at nights. Our Saturday long runs were an all day event. Ben would go in the morning, then I would go after. Many Saturdays we would have to run on a treadmill because it was so cold and snowy outside...or I would start running outside, but would have to finish inside on the treadmill because it got really late and cold. And there were some days, were we just couldn't muster up the energy to run. So we decided going into the race that we would do it together. I knew I didn't train as well as I did the first time, and wasn't going to beat my time. I knew whether I ran fast or slow I was going to hurt.

Our plan, since we were given only 6 hours to finish, was to run/jog as long as we could the first half. We wanted a decent time for the 1/2 marathon split, then that would give us some extra time the second half to walk as much as we needed.

There were water stations every 1.5-2 miles. Each station has water and powerade, and porta potties. And random stations had some oranges, and energy gels and bars. And since we ran through some neighborhoods, random people were nice enough to set up their own water station for us....one had a whole breakfast spread out for everyone....and a bunch of students set up "temptation station" where they were passing out shots of vodka.....and if someone took one they rang this huge cow bell....a few people around us took a shot.....they probably thought it would deaden the pain!

They changed the course from the last time I ran it last, and some idiot put a HUGE hill at mile 24!....the hill going up to the state capitol building. It was the worst. We called Ben's parents to tell them that we only had a mile and a half left, and we would be there soon....a half hour later we finish!....haahaa!!!....I'm sorry, but after running 24 miles, there was no way I was going to run up that hill, or even be able to walk it fast!

As we entered the Gateway mall Charley & Gabby were there with Ben's parents, who watched them while we were running. They lifted Charley over the little fence they had, and she ran the last 100 meters with us. She was so excited to race with us all week, she wore her running shoes and everything! It was a perfect way to end the race!

Oh and we totally took advantage of the free massage you get for all the racers! It felt great! We are both sore, but not too bad. We forget we are sore until we have to move!

To quote Dora the Explorer (a favorite at our house!)...."We did it, We did it, Hooray!".....26.2 miles!