New Marathon PR!

Well, I went into Baltimore hoping to run a 3:30 marathon, and.....I blew it out of the water!!! 3:17:53 marathon, a new PR for me. I'm still shocked. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be able to run 7:34 min miles for a marathon. Never. Ever. My hard work has paid off!!

I finished 2nd in my age group out of 191 women (missed first place by 3 stinkin' seconds!!). I was the 24th overall woman out of 1115, and 105 overall out of 3,145 finishers.

At the started I battled between whether I should start off running with the 3:30 pace group or the 3:20 pace group. My fear was starting out too fast and losing steam near the end of the race, but I decided to start out with the 3:20 pace group and hang in there as long as I could. Felt great the first 13.1 and was right on pace for a 3:20 marathon. Also saw my family cheering at mile 13 which gave me an extra boost of energy. Miles 16-22 brought some tough hills, but I managed to hang with the pace group, knowing I could do this!! Mile 23 marked the end of the hills, and at that point I got another burst of energy and decided to leave the 3:20 pace group and go all out the last 3.2 miles. Saw my family right before Mile 26 and gunned it towards the end. And, of course, I then cried. Tears of joy of course. :)

A big congrats to my brother Craig who rocked his second ever 5k! Also, to my cousin Lexi who also ran the 5k, and my Uncle Terry who ran the half-marathon, improving on last years time. Also, a BIG THANK YOU to my family who came out to support my craziness and my friends and husband for all of the support over the past few months. Couldn't have done it without you!!

Thanks for a great race Baltimore!!!

Next up: IBM 10K this Sunday, first race of the distance challenge!!