St. George Marathon

Iran a marathon!!! I ran in the St. George Marathon on Saturday October 3, 2009. It was the experience of a lifetime. I had been training for four months and was feelin that it was race time! During my training I got severe shin splints, which hindered my progress for a while because it was too painful to run. I went into a physical therapist and was given some stretches to do daily and was told to cross train my miles rather than running. I did this for about a month an my shins were feeling great! So.... I registered for a half-marathon about a month before the marathon (September 5). I told myself I was just going to walk/run the half-marathon because I didn't want to re-injure myself after just coming off of a severe injury, but I know myself well enough to know that I don't do anything halfway. I walk/ran for about the first four or five miles of the half-marathon but after that I said forget this and ran the rest of the race, because for goodness sake it was a race!!! I finished with a time of 1:51:34 and felt so good afterwards, no pain whatsoever.... well until the next day. I paid for that race and had to start cross training again because my shin splints flared up again, but I was still very happy that I ran it. Running in the half-marathon really helped me to feel ready for the marathon. It was amazing!

Training for a marathon takes a lot of patience, diligence, self-discipline, and mental energy. It was an incredible experience just training for this marathon and I know that I did not do it on my own. I wasn't able to meet my goal time for the marathon, because my knee started hurting about an hour into the marathon (so after about 7.5 miles) and I was in a lot of pain for the next 18 or so miles. Towards the end of the race my left hip started compensating for my right knee problem. About the last 3 miles of the race I just kept telling myself that I wasn't in pain and to keep running and that's what I did, I just kept running. I finished with a time of 4:19:47 and had to feel good about that even though it was not the time I was aiming for and I am happy just knowing that I kept running despite the pain... I ran a marathon!!! :) There will definitely be more marathons in my future :)