Austin Marathon 2011

Well, my marathon training season is over!  This past Sunday, I ran the Austin Marathon & completed it -- and oh, what a feeling it was!

The race started behind the Capitol Building in downtown Austin at 7am on Sunday morning.  We meandered all over Austin... heading down south to Ben White Blvd before heading all the way up north to Highway 183, and then back to the downtown area.

Justin ran the half marathon & finished in 2 hours 5 minutes. 

Then he proceeded to wait another 3 hours & 9 minutes until I crossed the finish line at 5 hours & 14 minutes!

The race went well!  I ran the entire thing with my friend, Christa, who trained with me for the past 6 months.  At around mile 22, I started "hitting a wall" (as runners call it) & wasn't sure what I was thinking signing up for a marathon.  BUT - I kept telling myself I only had 4 more miles to go... and that kept me going.

I even had enough energy during the last 200 meters to "kick it in" and pass a few people before reaching the finish line.

The race was great -- and we had a great day for running.  I did get a sunburn, but was so thankful that it wasn't raining or freezing cold.  It was a pretty warm day in Texas!

I got a GPS watch for Christmas that keeps up with how many miles I've gone, my pace, etc. In addition, it keeps up with how many calories I burned.  The day of the race?  2950 calories.  WOW -- that's more than we're supposed to consume every day!
And, according to the scale, I lost 5 pounds between the morning of the race & the morning after.  Quite the weight loss management plan!  (ha)

LIVESTRONG sponsored the marathon & Lance Armstrong himself ran the race with us!  

You can see my medal (that I'm so incredibly proud of) below... and we both got awesome technical shirts to show off our accomplishments!

I took a nice, cold ice bath on Sunday night, followed with ibuprofen & lots of rest.  Monday I was pretty sore, but by Tuesday, I felt pretty back to normal.

THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me over the past 6 months of training!

I DID IT!!