I'm new at uploading video, but so far, it's been okay. I was able, with the help of my best friend's mom, to capture some good footage of the race that you will all hopefully enjoy.
My best friend and I arrived at the event a little before 6am and before we knew it, we were off an running. My bestie is so much faster than me, so she started up near the front, whereas I was more in the middle of the pack. The horn sounded and off we went!
I took with me, an AWESOME fanny pack to hold my GU since I couldn't carry 5 GU's with me in my water bottle. I borrowed it from my old running partner, but it was SIIICK. Surprisingly, I didn't get any comments from people around me on race day, but maybe it was just too early in the morning for them to realize how cool it was. Or maybe they were THAT intimidated by me wearing it.
Anyway, as amazing as the fanny pack was, it was WAY too bouncy around my waist and I had to ditch it near mile 6. Don't worry, I didn't DITCH it ditch it. I just handed it off to my bestie's mom who was kind enough to take it from me. As far as the GU's went, I just ended up eating one less GU (which kind of killed me in the end, but more about that later).
The first 13 miles were fairly easy. No muscle aches, my leg felt great, my pace was decent, and I was over all a happy camper. Everyone around me made it so exciting. I didn't even take my music player with me. I even met a friend while running the first few miles...
And when I say "friend", I mean an semi-annoying man who felt compelled to give me the low down on all marathongs since I was stupid enough to tell him this was my first one.
"Oh! So this is your first one, huh? How long did you train for? Where are you from? What pace did you train at? Did you train with vita lyte? You know, you shouldn't drink anything you didn't train with. Do you know what a negative split is? Let me tell you..." BLACHGHARGAJ!!!
I'm all for talking while jogging for about 3 miles, but I'M TRYING TO RUN A FREAKIN' MARATHONG HERE MAN! BE A PAL! SHUT UP!
It took a little bit of extra effort on my part not to snap at him. For all I knew, the next 25 miles might be next to THIS guy. I had to keep my cool. I ended up slowing down to let him pass me at one of the water stations and I didn't really see him again... THANK GOODNESS.
By mile 13 I was thinking, "Man, if I were running the halfie, I'd be done... with energy to spare too!" But since I WASN'T doing the halfie, I just kept running. Around mile 17, I started to feel my achilles freak out a little bit.
"No no no no no.... NO!" Regardless of how bad that leg felt, I was determined to keep running. I was just getting SO tired. I ate a GU pack about every 5-5.5 miles and that kept me going fairly well, but around mile 21 I started feeling MISERABLE.
"Mile 21... okay... less that 6 miles! No biggie, piece of cake." But it wasn't a piece of cake. It was piece of "HOLY SHNYKEES I WANNA DIE". The next 6 miles were the longest 6 miles I have every run. Muscles that I didn't even know I had started hurting. My back, my quads, my knees, EVERYTHING. Slowing down through the water stations was hard too. Starting back up was even harder.
Around mile 25, I was next to this woman all decked out in LA Marathong gear and she was TALKING ON HER CELL PHONE LIKE IT WAS NO BIG FREAKIN' DEAL THAT SHE WAS RUNNING A MARATHONG! CRAZY! People like that are insane.
Eventually, I saw the beautiful finish line... praying that it wasn't a mirage, my mind told my legs to just move faster. In my mind, I was sprinting through that finish line. In reality, I don't know how slow I was going, but I was putting every last ounce of energy into that finish.
Of course I stopped at the end to ensure that the camera guy got my picture. I even paused to make sure that there was no one else near by that could steal my thunder. There's NO WAY I was about to share a picture going across that finish line.
BUT I DID IT! I, TIFFANY CHRISTMAS LEE, KNOWN SPRINTER, UNKNOWN DISTANCE RUNNER, FINISHED A MARATHONG! It only took me 4 hours and 18 minutes.... ONLY! :) (My best friend KILLED it with 3:21! She's Boston bound! She was 3rd in our division too!)
I set my mind to it, and although there were huge obstacles along the way, I still completed it! I even received a finisher's medal!
It's been 2 days since the race, and my body is still pissed at me for what I did to it, and although it's still in a state of shock, I'm really glad and proud that I did it. Only a few people ever train and complete a marathong...and I'm one of them!
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Here is some of the footage I was able to get on race day. Enjoy!
ON OUR WAY TO THE START! IT'S WAY TOO EARLY!
By the way, it did NOT smell like farts in the car.
POST MARATHONG DEBRIEFING WITH T.LEE
(There is another video that goes here that wont' upload and I'm PISSED! When I have more time to figure it out, I'll post it. For now, just imagine me after crossing the finish and screaming, "SWEET BABY JESUS I'M DONE!")
LAST MINUTE THOUGHTS ON THE JOURNEY
Thank you again, to everyone who took the time to read my blog! It's been so fun and I really hope to keep letting people know what I'm up to as far as my active life goes. I've got the Shamrock'n Half Marathong coming up in March so I"ll be sure to let you know how that went!!
Until next time! Keep running!
