Nike Marathon

Five is my favorite number and this was my fifth marathon so I thought I should share five things about marathon #5.

1. I was supper jittery about this race. It was a hard course with tons of killer hills but I am super proud of myself for keeping an 8:30 minute/mile pace. At mile 20, at was at 2hours:40 minutes and I thought I might break sub4, so I pushed a little harder. and this happened….

2. I got SUPER dizzy at mile 24. so dizzy, I had to pull off to the side and try not to fall over and cry from how angry I was for not being able to keep going. I jogged the rest of the way, and finished at 4:11. I totally had this sub4 thing.

3. I found my parents after the race, and I told my mom what happened (in between tears- crazy how she understood haha) and she suggested my blood sugar got low. She made me sit and eat a banana, I still felt terrible but I was able to stand up and stop by the sponsor booths to pick up some free stuff. (chocolate milk, coconut water, tons of luna bars, and a full size nutrogena facial cleanser! score!)

4. Another lesson learned, eat well the day before a race. On saturday my parents and I did a little sightseeing and I had a bread bowl as a late lunch. Come dinner time, I was still full and tired so I skipped dinner and was in bed by 8pm. The next morning, I had a tiny 100 calorie gatorade chew. During the race, I had a full cliff blocks and some nuun. I know, that's a real small amount of food for so much effort.

4. The course was beautiful, hilly and amazing. I wasn't sure about the hills but all the hill workouts paid off because they were totally doable. This race is super congested but it is so much fun, t would do it all over again and hopefully I will get a shot at redemption next year.

5. The final results were a little disappointing. Last night I was super bummed. This morning I woke up and decided to focus on the good things. This marathon didn't go like I wanted, but there are tons of races to come :)

I ran an awesome, strong race, I know I can break sub4 and I will
I learned about proper fueling. Nutrition is so important.
The race was hard, but the whole time I thought about how awesome it was. I love running,
The past three months of training were worth it (30 minute improvement from March, 15 minutes from my previous Personal Record (PR) last November)
I had a great weekend with my parents. I'm glad they were there to take care of me post race.

oh yeah, and this little thing….