Myrtle Beach Marathon

Here is one of the only pictures I have of the weekend. Mainly because I never carry my camera during a race so I only end up with pictures of the gang when we are looking like non-athletes again. This is only a few of the people from the upstate who ran the marathon or the half-marathon. (the guy in the back with a mouth full of food was NOT with us). Anyway - we have here Brad, me, Chad, Ashley & Tom. Not pictured are Laura, Jim, Audrey (whom I never even saw) Julie and I am sure a bunch of others! Just too many from the upstate to even keep track of.

Soooo- you want to know about the marathon? I was pretty relaxed about the day. The original intention was to run a 3:15 pace steady from the get go. That worked out well for a bit, although I must have been told to slow down at least every 1/2 mile. I am NOT good at starting slow. Finally we settled into a nice pace and good conversation which Laura and I kept going until mile 14 when a potty stop separated us. After that I just ran as I felt with no pressure to pace anyone. My right quad was pretty tight so I just focused on other things. My mantra became "light as a feather, free as a bird" and every time I said that to myself I could run faster. Sounds crazy but it worked. I slowed the pace a little the last 4.5 miles but overall was very steady which is what I am happiest about. I have never run a marathon as steady as I did this weekend so maybe after 20 years of running I will learn how to start a little slower and finish a little stronger. I finished in 3:21 and was the 15th female and 156 finisher out of something like 1900 runners.

Laura was close behind me with a 3:26 and 2nd place in her age group. Brad was 3:38 and Jim...running his very first marathon was right at 3:59! He ran an amazing race and negative split the second half which is virtually unheard of. I think out of everyone I had to be most proud of him. He worked so hard and always had the goal of breaking 4 hours so to be able to see him actually do it was wonderful.

Another fun weekend of racing!