Road 2 Hope Race Report

So...marathon... one word...hurts!

Ok, so now it is over and many people asked what I was looking to do. My goal was to hit around a 2:48 marathon, and I ended up doing a 2:51:33...this is how it went down.

Going into the race I was a bit nervous. Not because of the distance but because I was scared I would have no one to run with. I was going into the race with no knowledge of the pain I was going to feel. Lisa and I had a plan and I was going to stick to it as well as I could!

I race started fast and right away I was sitting in 8th overall. I ended up running with a guy named Roger, who was great to work with! We each took a Km and held around 3:53 per km. At the 21km mark we were sitting around 1:22 and by the time we hit the 30km mark we were at 1:58! This was perfect we were right on pace for a 2:48 ish marathon finish. At the 21km mark we headed down...and I mean down the Red Hill Valley Expressway, which was 8km of pain on the quads. This I believe set up the last 10km to hurt as much as it did......

Before I get into the pain, I must say the weather was perfect and I had a kit from Saucony, which was perfect. Arm warmers, singlet, shorts, Type A3 Racing flats and 4 gels tucked away in the arm warmers. Thanks again Mike for making my first marathon feel not so bad in the chaffing department! haha

Onto the hurt.... I hit the 32km and started to feel fatigued. I have felt tired before but when Lisa said it would hurt a lot I didn't expect this. I went from 4:00 per km to 4:15 -30 per km. I was starting to fall apart. At the 35km mark I was passed by the lead female and Roger was able to keep with her. Figured he knew what he was doing when it was his 10th marathon! My goal now was to survive and not stop. At the km marks Lisa and Dave got me going by telling me to surge and keep surging until the end! I pushed as hard as I could to get that sub 2:50 marathon but came up 90 seconds short....

I am super happy with my result and have signed up for the Boston Marathon in April. I am still not walking properly today and respect every Marathoner and Ironman around. I have never been in that much pain and for some weird reason am excited to do it again! Thanks to Saucony, Cera Sport and of course LB and Dave! Couldn't have done it without your support and telling me Rufus is beautiful! Oh and can't forget my main crew (Shannon and Rufus)!! Love you both!

Time to rest and have some very exciting news coming in my next blog!!!...stay tuned!