Newport Marathon 2012

On Wednesday Jason started complaining that he thought he was getting sick...
On Thursday I decided to sleep on the couch because the LAST thing I wanted was to get sick a day and a half before my marathon.

On Friday Vaughn was super nice and drove Amy and I down to Newport OR to pick up our race pakets.

On Saturday we woke up at 5:30am so that we could be ready to head to the start line in plenty of time before gun time.

Which is why I don't look quite awake...In case anyone was wondering I actually packed about 5 different running outfits because I couldn't decide which one I wanted to run in...Amy laughed at me.
I really like this race.  It capped out at 900 runners so initially I was worried that I would be running alone for most of the race, but that wasn't what happened at all. 

The night before we went to the grocery store and ran into a super nice guy named Ron who told us he had just completed the TX Ironman two weeks before and since he had tried to run Neport 4 other times he was determined to finally run in.

Race day we ran into him again and I got to run about 7 miles with him.  I also met another really nice ugy whoes name I don't remember so he will be forever known as "barefoot runner".  It as his second Marathon...he ran his first in 3:45...He wanted to run Newport in 3:30.  By about mile 8 I lost my running buddies but I was feeling good.

Not so good that I chanced one of the oyster shooters:)

I actually managed to maintain a really solid pace of 8:03 per mile.

Until the turn around...Mile 15.5...For some reason it didn't occur to me that after I had been running on the banked roadway for 5 miles I would have to run on the SAME banked road for another 5 miles.  You'd think that it would be a relief to switch to my other leg having to deal with the bank.  It wasn't...at all.

It actually kind of hurt...

So after running an amazing 15.5 miles I got to watch my time get slower and slower and feel my Quads, Hamstrings and for the first time ever Glutes BURN.  I was a total weeny.

I just couldn't come up with  subject to think about to take my mind off the fact that I hurt and kind of wanted to be done with the whole marathon.

I'm apparently really boring after 20 miles.

Vaughn was amazing through the whole race.  He would carry anything we didn't want anymore, and give us whatever thing struck our fancy for the momment.  I asked him for my gummies at one point and he even opened the pack for me so I wouldn't have to mess with it.  He biked back and forth between Amy and I through the whole race checking on us.  Absolutely amazing.

THEN he drove us 5 hours back to Olympia, while we took naps.

But before he did that he drove us to take showers, to the beach and then to an awesome little restraunt with the most delicious clam chowder and the nicest waitress.  The only sad part was that we were too full to try their Peanut Butter Cream Pie.

My "Goal In The Sky" was my Boston Qualifing time of 3:35...My Official time was 3:44:05.
I walked/ran the last 5 miles.  I just couldn't suck it up enough to keep going...even if it was slower than I wanted.

Bet you didn't think I could be more awkward then Amy!

I'm sad that I didn't make my original time but I had plenty of time while I watched my Garmin tick the seconds off to get used to the idea I wasn't going to make it.  I think I would feel better about it if I had managed to run the entire thing.  I ran the entire way my first marathon but since then...