Marathon Status: completed

Yeppers.
I did it! It took me 6 hours. 3 bathroom stops.
Just completed my first marathon. I don't know for sure if it will be the last that I run, but I know it's the last one until I turn 30 or more. Definitely think that a 13.1 is much more manageable and will run the half marathon in DSM with my husband this fall.
Grandma's Marathon up in Duluth had about 8200 participants, the 17th largest in the country. It was cloudy and about 55 for the whole race, which was really what we wanted. I was pretty slow, since my training was "run one long run every other week" and I took the last 2 weeks off entirely at the end. I didn't really get any of the 3-5 milers in at all, which was dumb.

I should have trained more for it, but felt so miserable after each long run that I didn't feel up to it. Obviously the reason I was feeling so miserable after each long run was that I only had water to drink, didn't carry powerade or gu or gels or anything, which threw off my electrolytes quite a bit. I felt better after finishing the full marathon than I had after any of my training runs. So now I know how important those alternate sources of energy are for the longer runs and hope to pull in a faster 13.1. Would be great to be under 2 hours, but I'll need to really work hard for it.

My splits were about 33 minutes at the 5k mark, 1 hour at the 6.5 mile mark, 2:34 at the 13.1. I was about a full mile behind my pace expectation around mile 20 and never was able to catch back up with my pace time. I think miles 15-16 were the hardest for me. They were out of gu by the time I got to each rest station. I physically ran until about mile 24, when I really had to resort to walking. At mile 25.5, I couldn't see the finish line (there were lots and lots of turns at the very end of the race) and noticed that I was really about to miss my last-ditch goal time. I was practically hyperventilating at that point and started to cry and shake. The medical aid came to me and walked me across the finish line and gave me the superman cape early since it was so cold.

While I was running, I was trying to establish if this was physically the hardest thing I've ever done or not. I feeling good, so I couldn't say for sure, but the last mile got me to say "yes, this was the hardest thing I've done." Since I was slower, most of the crowd had left and the cheering was much more sporadic near the finish line. Had I been in a 4-5 hour pace time, it would have been a bit easier to focus on the finish line and run through. I think my last 2 miles were nearly 20 minute pace!

The aftermath is pretty tough. It's hard for me to stand up and move around easily, though we did walk it out for about 3 miles today. I also managed to get pretty sunburned even though it was overcast the entire time. My face, shoulders and chest are BRIGHT red.  We were planning on the post-marathon massage to help with the intense muscle aches, but they shut down by the time I was done. They were also out of oranges and chocolate milk and all of the food you should get when you finish the race. Guess I was too slow!  I had a massage scheduled for Saturday, but they just called me to cancel.  PAIN!
But well worth it.