Marathon Finisher!🏃🏻‍♀️💪🏼💨✅

I did it! Goal accomplished! I so proud of myself for checking this off my bucket list. Really happy with how I ran the race and my results. 

Per the official results I completed the marathon in 4:45:42. I was 412 / 926 for all marathon runners, 147 / 408 for female marathon runners and 29 / 73 for Females 35-39. So top half of each category! Super pleased those results for my first marathon!

The weather was great for the run. Low 60's in the morning, cool for sure, but I managed to go without layers. I think it warmed up to the upper 70's by the time I completed the race. Warm, but not hot.

I started the race with the 11:04 or 4:50:00 pacer. This was super helpful and kept me close to my target pace as I went. I stayed with her until probably mile 16 or 17 when I broke away. My fastest mile (besides the .2 miles at the end which was 9:34) was mile 4 with a 10:22 and my slowest mile was mile 25 with an 11:15.

 The race felt smooth and steady,  much more so than my 20 or 22 mile runs. I didn't hit any big walls which was great, especially heading into the last 4.2 miles since I only trained up to 22 miles. I had enough water and fuel with me and along the route to keep me going. Thankful for the pretzels along the course for my salty snacks. Other than that I had fruit squeeze packs and dried mangoes. 

The race started in the dark and with so many people moving through the course those first few miles go by quickly. We enjoyed the beautiful sunrise over the river as we ran, lots of birds cheering us on and we even saw a few dolphins on the south end of the course!

I kept mentally strong and motivated which was also a big factor in my success. I had 3 pieces to my goal. First I wanted to finish the race, secondly I wanted to run the entire race and finally I wanted to finish under an 11 minute mile pace and under 5 hours. All three of these goals were fulfilled!

I had great support from my boyfriend who helped refuel me at the halfway point along with my friends who surprised me by showing up at the finish line. As they cheered me on I made a sprint across the finish line! What a feeling! I did it!

My friend Bridget was running the North half marathon and we met up before the race started and share our excitement and good luck wishes. As we passed along the north course we gave each other a "you go girl" spirited high five! 

The running community is a great place to be for sure. The energy felt during these races is like nothing else. If you have the opportunity to run, jog, walk,  volunteer or be a spectator definitely go for it. I promise you'll gave a good time. In addition, prepare for a healthy dose of inspiration and motivation!

I'm sure there's so much more I can say, but I'm going to leave it here for now. I spent the rest of the day recovering and will continue recovering tomorrow since I have no idea how I'll feel when I wake up tomorrow. 

I do have a 5K scheduled for this Saturday. We'll see how that goes. Hopefully my body will be fully recovered and up for the race, if not I can always walk it out 😊

Zero more runs to goal!

Goal completed!🏁🏅🏃🏻‍♀️