I ran my very first marathon ever!!!

Me. I finished 3,183rd :)

Well.... I kind of fell off the face of the Earth on here. Woops! and Sorry.

I finished in 5:08:01. Which is pretty good considering I stopped 3 times for my running buddy to take a potty break during the first 12 miles AND I stopped for a good 7-8 minutes to get my feet bandaged up so I could run the last10 miles.

The Nike Women's Marathon Expo. It was a ginormous cluster.

And we made it to Alcatraz :)

I guess the most important thing to post is that I successfully completed my first marathon! AND I did not seriously injure myself. I did stop at 3 separate aid stations in order to wait in line and sign in for Band-Aids, to get taped up, and to run off with Band-Aids to put on myself at a later time. I had 3 blisters on one foot and 4 on the other foot. (It was raining so my feet ended up getting wetter than I had anticipated - AND I did not put Body Glide on my feet which in hindsight may have been a super idea. I'll do this NEXT time.)

Yummmyy..... Best clam chowder ever!

I am officially 5 days out and my feet are finally starting to function normally again. The day after the marathon, you could tell which people walking through San Francisco had just run 26.2 miles. We were all walking incredibly funny - it was cute :)

I am happy to report that even though my furthest mile was 16 miles AND I trained almost exclusively on a treadmill (aside from 2 runs) due to Phoenix's excessive heat, I felt pretty good running San Francisco's hills. I mean I felt good.... my ankles: Now that is a separate story. I don't know why, but my knees were sore for 3 days and my ankles for 4.5 days. Hips: fine, Quads: fine, Glutes: fine, Calves: ehh fine I guess. Toes, feet, and ankles were beat down though.

Subtract 23 minutes and this was my time at #25

Subtract 23 minutes and this was my time at #24

And I think that is all for now. I am looking forward to a half marathon in Big Sur in the next 3.5 weeks! and then it is off to figure out what my 2nd marathon is going to be. I'm pretty excited b/c I am fairly certain I can shave off a good 30 minutes from my finish time.

Proof I finished: You don't get a shirt or necklace unless you cross the line!

P.S. I DID NOT CRY. I wanted to when we were lining up and I wanted to the say before when I picked up my packet at the expo. Happy. Proud. Content. :)

And I'm working on a new project for a friend who moved away:

xxoooo <3