The Quintiles Wrightsville Beach Marathon

Last Friday afternoon Jaime, the kids and I loaded into the minivan and made the 350 mile trek across the state to the coast. Marathon weekend had finally arrived! The drive, which has been known to take us anywhere from 5.5 -10 hours wasn't too bad but we left later than usual to avoid driving on the day before the race and didn't get into town until 10:30 Friday night. The kids were a crazy mess and didn't get to sleep until after midnight. Saturday was spent trying to calm any pre-race jitters by soaking up the 70+ degree temperatures and shopping with my mom. That night we went to bed very early only to sleep very little. I was SO nervous. Not really nervous but my brain was racing about everything that I was about to do the next day. Aside from never having run 26.2 miles in my life, I was just excited. So excited that I had made it so far. I almost switched to the half marathon so many times over the last 16 weeks. I was so sick of running and training and living, eating, sleeping, breathing and talking about the marathon. I have three kids who demand my full attention and totally wear me out on a daily basis. My knee was messed up at one point and just 5 days before the race I was overtaken by a debilitating stomach flu situation that left me wondering if I even could run. But if I'm being completely honest with myself, I was never going to quit. Even if I really, really wanted to because I've never quit anything. Its just not my style. So there I was, laying in bed freaking out because my life was about to become even more awesome and soon it would all be over and I could finally stop thinking about it. Here we are at 4am on race morning:

We got dressed and went downstairs at Jaime's parents house to find a super sweet Irish Breakfast and well wishes. I was so anxious I paced around a bit and tried to eat some cranberry bread while chugging coffee. 

We drove over to the finish line and parked the car. I told Jaime to find the closest parking place he could so we wouldn't have to walk at all afterwards. Always thinking ahead! Then we took a bus over to the start line at Wrightsville Beach Park where they had a DJ and flashing lights. Being that it was 6am it was still really dark but the adrenaline pulsing through the air was contagious. Here we are just before lining up.

The goal I set for myself during training was four hours, thirty minutes. Oprah ran a 4:31 and I'm in way better shape than her. And again with the honesty: I set 4:30 as my goal so I wouldn't be disappointed. In my head I was really thinking I'd do 4:15. I mean, I'd been training in the mountains for four months in freezing temps and I was about to run at the beach, on flat ground in 60 degree weather. Piece. Of. Cake. Still, I wanted to pace myself so I didn't burn out early, so I got with the 4:30 pace group and planned to stay with them for 20 miles... At which point, if I felt like it, I'd leave and race (hahaha) 10K to the finish. This all sounds so funny now. So yeah, Jaime and I took off with Stephenie the pace group girl and it felt great. And SO slow. The course was really easy and the weather couldn't have been better. You couldn't have asked for better conditions for your first marathon. It was just perfect. We talked and laughed and pretty much forgot we were running for the first 13 miles. The half marathoners turned to finish and we set out for another loop. If I HAD switched to the half I would have killed it. 13.1 miles felt like 5K that day. We were still on pace and still laughing. Around mile 15 Jaime told me to leave. Wait, what? He said he just wanted to take it easy. My sweet husband signed up to run with me just two weeks after the Biltmore Marathon from hell and had run exactly zero times since. I thought about hanging back but knowing him better than I know myself, when he says go, ya better go. So I left. I stayed with the pace group for 7 more miles and ran all the way to the 22 mile marker without walking. When we turned into Landfall the second time I started to feel bad. Tired deep inside my bones and like I was going to pee on myself if I took one more step. So I ran into the woods and tried to pee but nothing happened! AGH! Deciding I was too nervous to pee on the side of the road in the Wilmington's fanciest community I ran to the next PortAJohn. I sat down to pee and nothing happened. WTF? Then I couldn't get back up. My legs were like yo, you just ran 22 miles, we are gonna take a break now. But it smelled so bad in there that I somehow stumbled out and started walking. The pace group was long gone. I started doing mental math and decided that I could walk the whole way back and still make it. Also, I was hoping to see my husband at some point, so I kept walking and I walked all the way to mile 24. At that point the only thing that separated me and the finish line was 2.2 miles and I was back on the main road that was full of spectators. I dug deep inside of myself and took off. I'm pretty sure those last two miles were my fastest of the whole race. I crossed the finish line in 4:52:25 and felt like I won. Seriously, it was amazing. It was SO HARD and I did it. My brain was mush and my legs were worse. I hugged family and cheered on Jaime who came in a few minutes later.

I totally underestimated that distance. Even on the easiest course, on the prettiest day ever, 26.2 miles is still a really long way to run. Wow. That's all I can say. WOW! Does life get any better? I never thought I could feel so good.

After the race, we posed for pictures:

Went out for drinks: 

Ate fried food: 

And then went to bed around 4pm... 12 hours after we started the day. Who knew your whole life could change in 12 hours? WOW.

1 Marathon Down, 1 to go.

Back in October Jaime signed up for the inaugural Asheville Marathon that would take place on March 3rd entirely on the grounds of the Biltmore Estate. He had completed a marathon the year before in just over 4 hours in Greenville, SC on a super charged training schedule (READ: he ran all the time for about 5 weeks). He was excited to have more time to train this time around and to be a part of Asheville's very first marathon. Now, I love my husband. He works ridiculously long hours and controls every bit of finance that goes into and out of North Carolinas largest retirement community. And he works even longer hours being a father of three children. I haven't given Josiah or Oliver a bath in over a year. Seriously, how many other Mama's can say that? So, it wasn't exactly fair when the first thought that popped into my mind upon hearing the 26.2 news was: Another Marathon? Didn't you already do that? Great. Guess I'll be alone on Saturdays for the next 4 months. See? I'm a terrible wife. Also, going through my brain was the fact he was working on number two and I had yet to do one. Guess I'd just sign up for my SIXTH half marathon and look at the ground every time someone asked if I'd done a marathon. Because honestly, I didn't really want to do a marathon. It's way too far and the first guy who did it died. But it seems like it is the ultimate frosting on a runners cake. If you want to claim to be serious, you need that 26.2. And if Jaime was going to spend 4 hours every weekend and a few days per week running, so was I. I mean, in the last 5 years I've grown, birthed out and nursed three children. Marathon? No problem.

I signed up for the Wrightsville Beach Saint Patricks Day Marathon and even claimed it as my Christmas present. Then I did what I knew I couldn't do if I ever wanted to quit. I set my facebook status to say: "Just signed up for the WB marathon!" You see, now that it was in facebook land there was no turning back. No way was I going to have some random acquaintance ask how my marathon went and tell them I'd actually quit. And the rest is basically history. Except history was an actual pain in the ass. Our family wasn't at home together in the morning AT ALL for 16 weeks. M-F Jaime was working. Saturday I was running, Sunday he was running. Rinse and Repeat. For real, neither one of us missed a single run the whole time. Even on a Saturday morning when I had a ridiculous stomach bug, I rallyed and ran a half marathon on Sunday instead. The winter, the sickness, a messed up knee, a baby, 3 year old and a 4 year old... nothing got in the way of running.  Can we be congratulated for having the strength of a Bengal tiger to endure such a rigorous and outrageous schedule? Yes. Could we be diagnosed with an actual DSMIV crazy person problem? Most likely. But here we are, March 4th and Jaime just completed his marathon yesterday morning. Look at how cute he is:



We have been training all winter and most of my runs were done really early when it was still 30-40 degrees. Jaime's were too and we were used to it. I mean, we do live in the mountains and it is winter after all. No use complaining about it. Still, yesterday was COLD. I think the coldest it has been all year. And the wind was insane. I think I saw somewhere that the stats for the race were; 22 degrees, 30 MPH winds and a  wind chill factor of 8 degrees. Yes, we live in the mountains at winter but this the still the South. Sheesh! Was God just mad at us for skipping so much church during our training? Because that just didn't seem fair. My plan of spectating the whole thing got kinda crazy with freezing, crying children so we just hung in the tents waiting for Jaime to finish. The guy who won was carried into our heat tent at one point with ice in his beard and eventually was taken to the hospital for hypothermia. I would totally have to go to the hospital too if I ran 2:45 marathon so he shouldn't feel bad. I'm sure he's fine and most likely out running somewhere right now. Anyway, we were waiting a long time for Jaime I got worried and started thinking that he'd frozen to death, or that his skinny ass blew away. I'm such a rational thinker. When I finally saw him come around the corner I was so proud of him! I ran up to him and said, "How you doing?! You ok?" and he was like, "I'm good. How YOU doin?" and then he ran off and that was that. Another marathon in the books. 

Now, I don't ever like to take the easy way out on stuff, really, I love a challenge. But I have never been happier that my marathon is at Wrightsville Beach in the flat land of sun and surf. I'm also thrilled that my superhero husband is running (again!) with me for the WHOLE 26.2 miles. Hey Josiah, Oliver and Corinne where are your mom and dad? Oh, they're just out running a marathon. How cool are our kids parents?

So, 13 more days until I can officially be called a marathoner too. I can't wait. And I really can't wait to have my weekends back with the four people I love more than anything in the whole world. Even more than running.