LA Marathon

So I am not sure if any one reads my blog anymore because I have not really kept up with it these last couple of months. Funny I have been trying to make my life more simple, giving myself more time and yet it seems like it has been busier then ever.

I started training for a marathon working with a student mentor group. I did not plan on running the marathon at first but the more and more I worked with the students the more and more I thought "hey if they could do it so can I". So May 25th I ran my first Marathon.

I thought I would finish it and never want to do one again but i did not feel that way at all, it was more the opposite and was thinking when can I do this again. It was the perfect day! We had worried all season that because the marathon date was changed to May it would be really HOT. On practice days when the students complained it was too hot I would just say, "Its good training for the marathon. It going to be even hotter." But it was not hot at all! I had a lot of people praying for the weather and it was the most beautiful overcast cool day ever. I could not have asked for a better day to run.

I was able to run with Ember one of the student I was training with for about half of the race. It was fun to see his excitement as we passed other people on our team. He started the year slower and really improved on his speed toward the end. I ran with a friend Stephanie until mile 18. She is the one in the picture above. We are at mile 15 in the picture and running strong. It was such a blessing to run with her. I really feel blessed to have so many people support me in this race. One of my good friends joined me at mile 20 and ran with me for a while. She also brought me some fuel.

I don't know if I ever hit a wall but I have to say the last 3 miles did seem like they would never end. The last part of the race was up hill ( a lot of the course was a gradual up hill, but there were a couple of steeper hills too).

It was fun to see random people i know along the race course cheering us on. I was even able to finish hitting my goal. I wanted to hit under 5 hours and my time was 4:58!

All of the students in our program ran well. Greg and Julie the other coaches where great too, they did not run the whole race this year but they ran in some student and supported us along the way. It was wonderful to see them along the course and Greg even ran with me for a short bit at the very end of the race. Even though a marathon is something you have to do on your own, it is also something so many people are a part of. You are not ever alone in it.

We had an awards banquet I will write about later and post some pictures from. It was a lot of fun, real Hollywood style.

So much more i want to share but that will have to be for another day. I promise to get better at updating.