Marathon Weekend

I'm still playing catch-up on my blog posts, so here's some more stuff that happened... er... last month...

The weekend of my marathon & Justin's half-marathon, we had some visitors from Arkansas!  Justin's parents & grandparents came down to visit, see our new house, help out with the kids, and cheer us on at our big races. 

The day before the race, we went on a short train ride out of Cedar Park.  Here we all are at the depot and on the train:

(Justin's grandpa wasn't feeling well this day, so he opted to sit out on the day & stay home)

Sunday morning was our race!  This is the race that I'd been training for 6 months for!  And I was ready!

Justin's Mom got up with us & went downtown to take pics & cheer us on.

Here we are in Justin's office building before the race:

And downtown just before we went to get in line for the beginning of the race...

The race wasn't that bad.  The weather was amazing & I felt great... until about mile 23 when something happened with my left knee.  But at that point, the end was totally in sight, so I kept my mind on the finish line.  

Our friends, Brian & Leslie, were waiting around mile 23 for me & snapped this pic -- crazy to think I was in extreme pain by the look on my face.  I think I was just excited to see someone I knew... it'd been a long 4 hours without seeing anyone I recognized!

When I was rounding the corner to the last turn (the finish line was right in front of the Capitol Building on Congress Avenue), I heard Justin & his Mom yelling my name.  They were there cheering me on at the very end!  I got an extra boost in my step & finished very strong, of which was proud.

I finished my full marathon (26.2 miles) in 4 hours, 51 minutes.  That was 25 minutes faster than my time last year!  I was SO happy with my time!!

Justin finished his half marathon (13.1 miles) in 2 hours, 5 minutes -- definitely a great time for him as well!

 Some may think I'm crazy, but I'm feeling another marathon coming on in 2013!!