Country Music Marathon Weekend

Two weeks ago was the CMMarathon here in Nashville. This was Marisa's first year to do the kids marathon. We ran 25.2 miles the weeks before the marathon. The last week alone she ran something like 15 miles!!! We didn't plan as well as we should have, but she was a trooper and got the mileage in. She and I ran several afternoons over at the park and my mom helped by taking her over to the local high school and let her run on the track. I think one of the last runs she told me that she would NOT be doing this next year. I was like OK, we'll see =)

So after her last mile run on the actual course and crossing the finish line and shaking Jeff Fisher's hand, she excitedly told me that she WILL do this next year. I told her we will make a schedule and stick to it.

I wish I had timed her last mile because one minute she started the race and by the time I could get to the finish line, there she was!! We know for sure she had made some progress on her time. The first mile she ran was right under 12 minutes (11:50 I believe). One of the next runs was under 11:30, then 11:00. I would bet she did her final run in ~10:00!

Now onto me....here I am super excited about my marathon, hoping to beat my time from last year! Let me just inform you that my last training run had been 2 weeks prior to race day and was 51 degrees, I had worn a long sleeve shirt even. At the start of the race it was already 70 degrees, at mile 1 I overhead a lady comment that is was 73 degrees!!! One other thing I should mention, my runner's knee had been hurting so I knew I might have problems there as well. So I started at 7:35 and was feeling really good, I was staying with the 4:45 pace team. I was even ahead of them for a few miles. So feeling good all the way up until mile 9 when I stopped to eat part of a bar, get water, pop some more tylenol, and make a port a potty stop. Got back on course and I could REALLY feel the heat(it ended up getting to 85 degress that day). My body was not ready for that! My knee was hurting and I as I hit mile 10, next 11 I could tell I was majorly slowing down and I was NOT going to get the time I was hoping for so I made a hard decision and split off with the half marathoners. I know I made the right decision at the time, but I often look back and wonder if I gave it my all. I finished in not even my best half time, but I finished!!

I am not sure if another full marathon is in my future or not. My knee may not let that happen, but there will be more halfs and now I plan on working on that time.