I put off reporting about the marathon because I wanted some of the "suckiness" to go away so that didn't taint my blog post. It was a very long walk and parts of it made me doubt if I (or we for that matter) would finish - but finish we did!
We had been watching the weather forecast and we knew it was going to end up raining - OK - we can deal with that. The only bad thing about the course I would say was the camber of the road - we felt like we were walking tilted to the right up until mile 17. The scenery was beautiful!
This pic was taken the day after - Before we left Morgan Hill we drove the course and took some pics because it was too rainy the day off for me to carry my camera. The weather on Monday was perfect!We knew very early on that we were going to not only be by ourselves for a while but also very last - the half split off from the full course around 1 1/2 miles in and there was no one that made the turn behind us. Amazingly we got tired before we even got to the halfway point and our grand plan was to start out slow and do the second half at a faster pace, but that didn't happen.
At mile 21.38 I got the text message that I had been waiting for - my parents had came down (2 1/2 hour drive one way) and they had brought our younger son. I asked my dad if he would think about coming and being there for the Hubster when he crosses the line at his first full marathon and he told me he would! How I kept that a secret from him for so long I have no idea! I was so excited at that point to see his face when he saw them! We also had two people from our walking group that made the same drive to be there when we finished! It was so nice knowing we would have people at the finish line cheering us in!
We finally got closer to around the 25 1/2 mile mark and our two walking buddies were there! They were so excited to see us and we were so excited to see familiar faces!!
We continue on knowing we are almost there and as we get closer to the finish line I can see my parents and Logan - I point up to the line and tell Jeff to look - and he at first says - what? Then he sees Logan in his bright orange rain jacket and he gets a little choked up! I almost cried too! I was so happy to have surprised Jeff - I was so happy to have help Jeff complete his first full marathon and I was so happy that we could stop walking!
Nothing says true love like walking 26.2 miles in 7 hours and 35 minutes and crossing the finish line hand in hand!
Logan got to put our medals around our necks and my parents followed us back to our hotel room and got us settled before they left to drive home.At the finish line we both said "never again" but under the right circumstances I think we could be talked into another one now...
A big thanks goes out to everyone who supported us along the way - from anyone who ever did a training walk with us (sometimes you get the group through the mileage and sometimes the group gets you through the mileage) - to my parents who keep my younger son every Saturday while we go out and do the silly and sometimes ridiculously long walks - The volunteers on race day and the family and friends who drive ridiculously long distances and stood in the rain waiting FOREVER for us to come in - special friends who encourage and support all along the way and even the morning of the marathon - and another friend who drove the course keeping us safe and even walked 5 miles with us even though she had a perfectly good car and didn't have to walk that 5 miles with us and supported me when I wanted to give up the most!
Sometimes it is easy to forget the amount of training and support a person needs to complete an event like this and crossing the finish line was a very humbling and emotional experience for me.
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