Rock n Roll Marathon 2010

Our running gang from Maple Valley!
Aaron's looking strong!

Coming up that hideous Aurora hill! We didn't think it would ever end!

Coleen, Tracie, and I plugging along! Brian came out to show his support!

The finish line! What a blessed sight!

My honey and I after the race!

The greatest friends ever! Becky and Suzanne came to cheer us

on! Love you guys!

The best running partners ever! Couldn't have done this without you!

It's been a week since this marathon and I still get really emotional about it! A year ago, my friends Tracie, Coleen and I set a goal to run this race. Tracie and I had both run the 1/2 last year and wanted to see if we could do the full.

What a great year it has been for training! Our winter was very mild which allowed us to run outside without much interruption from rain or cold. We kept up our running through the fall and starting in January we started on our "training schedule". When I first put together the excel sheet it looked impossible. Especially when I looked towards the end saw the long runs of 18 and 20 miles! Really? Could we do this? But the three of us made an awesome team! I can think on one hand the times we missed our runs - there were no serious injuries besides blisters, etc. We kept each other going and it turned into some great therapy sessions! I kept a total of miles that we ran since January and it was over 425 miles! Crazy! We want to thank our families and friends who supported us during the really long runs! We couldn't have done it without you!

Aaron's training proved a bit harder because from March-May he was taking his EMT courses - but he found that running home from Issaquah on Saturdays helped quite a bit! He and a few friends would also run MWF at 5:15 on the trail. This was his third marathon! He felt really good throughout the marathon and finished strong! I'm so proud of him and how well he runs!

All of a sudden the race was here! There were many from our ward that ran the race, which was really fun! The night before the race we had a big pasta feed at our home and planned out when we were leaving. On race morning we left our house at 4:45 and headed down to Seattle. We parked there and took a school bus (one of many) back down south to Tukwila where the race started. Aaron started in corral #7 and we started in #17. The race started at 7:00. We passed the starting line at 7:27. We did great until I "bonked" at around mile 16 but recovered around mile 20 and felt great. Tracie's IT band started acting up around mile 20 but we finished all together which was our goal all along! Aaron did awesome and shaved 20 minutes off his time from last year! He finished in 3:45. Way to go!

I didn't expect this race to be as emotional as it was. There were many reasons I was running it - to prove to myself that I could, to support my friends and Aaron, and to run a marathon with my best friend Tracie who is moving - but another thing we did to make the miles go by faster was to dedicate each mile to someone who had helped us get there. I cried many times throughout the race for those that meant so much to me! And of course running across the finish line broke us all down again! But it was also one of the most rewarding things that I've done! If I run one again, it will be a few years down the road - the time it took to train was hard on my family and me! Maybe someday I'll feel the need to run one again - but for now does anyone want to go out for a nice jog?:)