The life-altering half.

Again, I had planned out how this day was going to go for months. I would make it to mile 16 and things would get hard. I would push to mile 20 and then the next 6 miles would be a piece of cake. If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.

At mile 14 I turned to Mike and said, "I really want to walk." He said something along the lines of, "come on, you can do it." At mile 14.5, I walked. My stomach hurt. It was full of Gu and Gatorade and water and I wanted it to be digested already. As I walked, I twisted around hoping that would help it go through. No such luck. So, I sucked it up and started running again. After about an eighth of a mile, I slowed to a walk again. Mike turned to me and said, "Okay. This is not going to work. You need to walk until you have enough energy to run for a distance. If we finish this race running eighths of miles, it is going to take an eternity." I nodded and continued walking.

So, here's where it gets sort of fuzzy. I was really tired. I couldn't take anymore electrolytes because my stomach felt so crappy. There was a lot of walking, then running. I tried stopping to go to the bathroom to see if that would help. When I sat down, I felt beyond exhausted and really dizzy. There was a lot of dry heaving during the second half of the race. I wanted to puke so bad. Alas, I could not, and I had to finish this thing.

And then the miles kept coming. We ran to mile 17. Then we walked for a bit. Brad with his pacer balloons were far out of sight. Even the 4:30 pacer had passed us. I could care less. I just wanted to be able to say that I had finished. We ran some of 18, 19, and 20. I ran all of the 21st mile. My back was killing me. We ran and walked and ran and walked. I was so sick of walking. It was slow. I wanted to run. I wanted to sprint. But we still had 6 miles to go. I remember looking at the river and wondering if it would be faster if I jumped in and swam. Which reminds me, the route was absolutely beautiful.

Now mind you, Mike is next to me this entire time. He is not frustrated with me at all. He was so so so supportive. It blew me away.

And then, from out of nowhere, my lucky number 7, Deb, comes running up behind us. "HEY GUYS!!!" She has a huge smile on her face and is running with two other ladies. One of them seems to be having trouble like me. But Deb is running with her pushing her along. She runs next to us for a second and gives me a pep talk - beaming the entire time. I am beyond delirious at this point, but Deb's energy kicked me in the pants and let me know that I could do this.

Running and walking. Running and walking. Running and walking. Then, the five hour pacer passes us. Now, if you had told me before I started the race that I would be passed by the five hour pacer, I don't know if I would have done it. First of all, 5 hours was so beyond my goal of 4:30, that I would have just been disappointed with my time. Second of all, if I knew that the 5 hour pacer was going to pass me, that would mean that I would have to be out running for more than 5 hours. That is a long freaking time. But here I was, being passed by the 5 hour pacer, not caring in the least. My goal at this point, as it was in the beginning, was to finish. I am running a freaking marathon, dammit. I am going to finish this. By mile 23, I was done with walking. I wanted to run the rest of the race. I told Mike that, and he agreed, knowing full well that I was way too exhausted to do that. So, at mile 24, when I stopped to walk again, he was right there next to me. Every time I walked after that, I nearly broke down in tears. Mile 24. 2.2 miles. We were so so so close. And then we were at mile 25. Still running and walking. And then people started to appear. And then there was a straight away. And then I saw the mile 26 flag.

.2 miles. I was utterly exhausted. Within seconds, I can see the gate to Hayward Field. Mike screams, "THERE IT IS!!! YOU'VE GOT THIS!!!" I see Christina JUMPING up and down and screaming. I see John a few yards later with his finisher shirt and medal on - he had finished and I was so proud of him. I hear "LISA!" and look over to see Joel and Amanda - Amanda with her camera pointed right at me. I hop on the sidewalk and enter the gates onto hallowed ground. The track felt incredible - even Mike said something to me about how nice it felt. He said, "we're on the jumbo tron!!!" I looked up but didn't have focus enough to see. I was going to be done. I passed one girl and turned the corner. There it was. The end. The announcer yells, "HERE COME THE ROWELLS!!!" I cannot sum up in words how good that felt. I threw my arms in the air, as promised, and ran as fast as I possibly could. I heard the beep of the machine recording my time as I crossed the finish and that was it. I finished. I got my medal and was covered in a space blanket. Gosh, now, thinking back, I wish I wasn't so delirious so I could remember it better. That being said, I will forever remember how proud of myself I was. Oh gosh, and how happy I was to be done.

Oh, I forgot, my official time was 5:13:16. Overall, that is an 11:58 minute mile pace. My splits were:
10k - 1:00:35
13.1 - 2:13:10
30k - 3:36:53
Last 12k - 1:36:24

I, Lisa Rowell, ran 26.2 miles, a complete marathon. I am a marathon runner.