This version of Tuesday Trash is anything but trash... This will be more of a Tuesday Triumph. Little different, I know but there is a good reason for the switch.
I ran a marathon.
It all started last November when a friend told me about this new class that the U is offering and you run a marathon to complete it. The class was aptly named "1262 Marathon Training". I jumped at the chance to take a three credit phy ed class and I would get to do something that I feel everyone at least wishes they could do once.
The class started and it was set up where we had a running schedule given to us. The scheduled called for running on our own two days (Tuesday's and Friday's) and run as a class for two days (Wednesday's and Sunday's). For Sunday we would have our long runs which would range from 40 minutes at the start of the class to 20 miles (which we ran twice) and everything in between.
I ran well for most of the runs and felt confident in my abilities to run a marathon but that all changed a week before I was set to run. On my last run my knee started to hurt, and hurt bad. That night I was woken up multiple times because of the pain and for the week leading up to the marathon my diet consisted of plenty of Ibuprofen mixed with a steady dose of ice. Not fun.
Marathon morning approached and I would be lying to say I wasn't nervous. I've never ran a marathon before so I didn't know what to fully expect. I've ran 20 miles but its the extra 6.2 that will get ya. AJ then picked me up and we were off to Byron for the start of the race.
There were a lot of runners in a small elementary school and there was a cool buzz in the gym. Everyone had the nervous energy that I had and wanted the race to start asap. The national anthem was sung at the starting line (the singer needed a cheat sheet. Seriously? Who doesn't know the national anthem?). After the anthem we were off. After watching a girl pull down her pants showing her ass crack for a good 2 minutes I was ready to take on the marathon.
AJ and I kept a good pace throughout the race and were running strong...until I got to about mile 18. We hit the 18 mile mark at 2 hours and 40 minutes, five minutes faster then we have ran it before and I knew I was going to be in trouble. As AJ grew stronger, I felt weaker. After the 21st mile I had a little set back and told AJ to go on with out me. The last five miles were a test for me and although I had to walk more then I wanted to, I still finished the race at a respectable time of 4 hours and 5 minutes and came in 100th place out of over 220 men. Not bad for the first time.
Now to the Thank You's:
AJ- Thank you AJ for taking the class with me and getting up at 6:30 every Sunday and running with me. I don't know if I could have ran a marathon or gone through the training without someone else there with me. So thaaaaaaaanks.
Family - Thanks for supporting me with this marathon. Thank you for coming out and cheering me on while I ran, it helped so much seeing someone there rooting for you to keep going.
Chase and Chester - Thank you both for coming out on Sunday and rooting us on. Thank you Chase for making the drive down with me and for all of the support. You guys are awesome.
PE 1262 - Good job all. It was a long journey and we did it. Take it in and now we can drink again on Saturday's. Yay. Also thank you Chris for teaching and being there on the course with us. That was a big help.
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