The good half.

When I woke up Saturday morning, I read my email. I got an email from Jen that said, "don't forget - you've earned this. you've done the miles, now you get to skip around and enjoy the day." For the first 13 miles, I thought of Jen and what she had said. I remembered to enjoy it.

People were everywhere. Folks out on their front porches cheering us along. The first mile felt AMAZING. I was so so so happy to be running. There were distractions everywhere. Everyone had energy. It was a great place to be. I remember hitting mile 3 and being amazed that I had already made it this far. The pacer was still right ahead of us. I remember saying to myself, "I hope to keep him in sight until at least mile 16". I felt good. And then, around mile 4.5, I got a shot of pain in my knee. There it was, that stupid freaking IT band. My heart sank and my leg gave out. I tried to recover as quickly as possible but eagle-eye Mike saw it happen. "Are you okay?" Crap. This was going to be a long marathon. And then, a miracle. The pain subsided and didn't return. I am not really sure how that worked, but (totally ruining any surprise) my IT band left me alone for the entire remainder of the race.

We hit a little climb around mile 5 and John ran ahead. So, here we were, as we had been for so many weeks before. Me and Mike - out for a long run. After the climb, I was tired. I took a Gu packet and panicked a little. If I was this tired at 5, what was I in for? By mile 6 I felt great and felt great through the 11th mile.

I have to reflect a bit more on miles 6-11. Seriously, that part of the marathon was the best run of my life. I was warmed up, I had energy, and I felt like kickin' some ass. The people cheering on the course were unbelievably supportive. My bib had my name on it, so people would cheer me on by name which was amazing. There was a big, long hill that we had to climb that I hardly even remember. It was just a great day to be running. Defiantly, my favorite part of the marathon.

Around mile 12, the crowd had subsided and the half marathoners had split off from the full group. The herd thinned, and we were clearly in for the long haul. I started to get tired. I took another Gu packet and drank Gatorade at all the water stops. We passed the mile 13 marker and saw that my time was 2:13. I had been running for two hours already. I just needed to do it again. But, I was tired.