It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia!

I finished!  It was definitely the hardest thing I have ever done.  To be honest, it was really a gross day to run.  It was warm & muggy at 7 am.  Not fun.  Also, I have never been in a race with so many people.  It took us 20 minutes to get to the starting line after the run started.  

The night before the race I kept asking my friend Lisa to not leave me during the race, but after the race started I realized that you really have to run at your own pace so we got separated at about the 2 mile mark.  As I always say, I am really not the best runner.  I didn't know if I was going to be able to finish this race or not.  It was the longest race I had ever committed to run.

At about the 2.5 mile mark I really started to think that running this race was a bad idea.  It was so muggy!  I got to the first water station & walked a bit, but then got my 2nd wind & started running again.  I started to make deals with myself like - ok you just have to make it to mile 4 or the next water station & then you can walk some more.  I didn't feel bad though, a lot of people were walking at this point, so I knew that it was probably due to the weather.

When I reached the 5 mile mark I knew that I would be able to finish.  I ran for the most part after that even though my right knee was starting to burn.  My left ankle, was really starting to freeze up.  It doesn't really bend to begin with, so I had to lightly jog at this point.  I did get to shake the Governor of Pennsylvania's hand at mile 6.  He was just standing on the side of the road in a Pennsylvania t-shirt.  Nice!

At mile 8, I knew that the race was almost over so I tried my hardest to just get to the end.  I did try to run most of the last 2 miles, but at about 9.25 miles I had to start walking again.  The burning in my knee was getting to be about too much, but right as I got to 9.50 miles the crowd was much longer & people were tailgaiting & cheering.  I saw a bunch of people cooking hamburgers & I really wanted one!  When I got to the gate at the Navy Yard I was so happy because I knew that the race was over!!!  As I crossed the finish line (at the 10.12 mile mark) all I kept thinking was, I did it!!!!!

Thanks to all who encouraged me.  There was a point where I didn't think I could do it, but I just kept thinking about all the nice words of support & that really kept me going!