It's Go Time (marathon time)

It's been months coming, long training days, tempo runs, long runs, hill runs, hours of getting lost in your own thoughts. Your hard work and determination are finally being put to the test, leaving all the cares behind you, looking forward to that finish line. It's marathon weekend.

Will you worry about the weather? Maybe. Should you? No. You put all the hard work and training in already and the weather is not going to change whether you will run or not; your still running.

You drive to the expo the day prior to pick up your packet and settle into the city you will be running. The excitement in the room is contagious. You mingle, look at new running products, but keep an eye on the time. The evening is perfectly planned: expo then dinner by 6, laying out your marathon attire by 730, start relaxing and thinking about crossing that finish line by 8, get ready for bed by 9, then try to sleep.

The alarm goes off at 430am, it's marathon day! Butterflies are in your stomach but your excited and focused. You immediately drink water and eat your high cal energy bar so that it has time to digest into your body to be used as fuel. You have your list and check it twice; running shoes, sports watch, e-gels, ear buds, all here. It's now about an hour out from the 7am marathon start, so you eat your banana, do some final stretching and leave for the start line, thankful that the hotel is about a mile walk from where your marathon history will take place.

It's 6:40am, you take your final bathroom break, line up in your corral and it's go time! "26.2 miles here I come," you say. Thousands of runners, even tens of thousands of spectators; the energy is surreal! Fans are lined up the entire 26.2 miles. Signs, cowbells, cheering, horns are all along the way. The next 3.5-4 hours are an emotional one. You pace yourself the first 10 miles, soaking up the surroundings and holding back your running pace just a bit, knowing that after that you will still have another 16.2 miles. Getting to mile 14, so far so good, so let's up the pace, over halfway there. Let your mind, let the runners and let the spectators motivate you. Mile 20, your pace is faster, you've now gone through a couple e-gels and sips of water, the fans are even more amazing, but you keep your mind focused because your muscles are getting tired. Only 6.2 more miles! Here comes mile 22, you want to die, mile 23, you feel like you may die, keep going, because by mile 25 you realize you are too tough to kill! One mile left, you hear the crowd, the finish is yours! So you run as hard as you can the last mile, as your cross the finish line you hear your name called over the microphone, tears come streaming down your face... you did it! What an accomplishment.

Now eat, drink and wear the medal proud.

Xoxo, MK