Our Journey Continues

Even though this journey has officially been completed, our journey is going to continue here http://just2healthnuts.blogspot.com/. I have created a new blog so you all can continue to follow us on our running journey. Thank you all for your support!

Bittersweet Tears of Joy Our First Marathon Experience

WE DID IT!

We are officially marathoners!

I have been wanting to blog about our marathon for a little over a week now, but it has been hard to put the whole experience into words. Where should I begin? Well, I guess from the beginning, which actually started the morning before race day! Let me explain...

Friday, October 15, 2010...4:30 am....We were standing outside M&T Bank Stadium, better known as Ravens Stadium, waiting for the local news station, Fox 45! We had been selected by the Baltimore Running Festival to share our weight loss story and why we were going to be running the marathon on LIVE TV! As if running your first marathon wasn't exciting enough, but being able to share how we got to this point in our life on Live TV, made the whole marathon experience even more exciting and memorable. Unfortunately, we could not DVR the broadcast and see ourselves on TV because we did not get the channel, however; we had some friends who DVR'ed it and watched us on TV. Hopefully one of these days we will actually get to see it! Either way, whether we see it or not, it was still an amazing experience for the both of us, even if it was only for 2 minutes!

Now, let's fast forward to the night before the race...sleeping the night before the marathon was actually easier than we thought it was going to be. We both got a good night's sleep and got up at 4:00 am feeling refreshed and relaxed. It was actually two nights before the race that I had a dream about the marathon and ended up running the whole thing in my sleep! :) I was thankful that it was not the night before the race, as I think I would have been too exhausted for the actual marathon.

Okay, now back to the morning of the marathon...it was surprisingly pretty easy to get up and around at 4:00 am. We were both excited for this day, knew we had spent a lot of time preparing for the marathon, and we were ready! We got up, put our running gear on, and had one more meal to help prepare our bodies for the punishment we were about the put them through. We left the house around 5:15 am for the drive to Baltimore, so we could make sure we could get a parking spot. We got there a little bit after 6:00 am and we were surprised how many cars were already there. We bundled up, since it was still 2 hours before the start of the race, in order to keep our bodies warm. It was freezing that morning!

Me trying to stay warm before the marathon!

Rob trying to do the same thing!

Around 7:00 am, we finally decided to brave the cold and started our preparation for the marathon. We got the rest of our running gear on, put on sunblock, checked our bags, and used the bathroom one more time! :)

Then we began our walk to the starting line!

Rob walking to the starting line.

Me walking to the starting line!

Almost there...well, at least to our starting point!

We got to our starting point (12 minute a mile pace marker), grabbed a small sip of water, and waited, and waited, and waited. Then, after what seemed like hours, it was finally 8:00 am...

and time to start our 26.2 mile journey we had been waiting 3 months for. Here are some pictures of the marathoners ahead of us as we started our walk to the starting line:

Lots of runners!

Getting closer....

There it is...the starting line!

And we are off...

I didn't get a picture of it, but only a few yards into the marathon there was a guy holding a sign that said... "<26.2."

I ended up carrying my camera the whole 26.2 miles because I wanted to be able to document our entire marathon experience. I am really glad that I did too because it is definitely something we will never forget. I got as many of the mile marker signs as I could throughout the marathon, as well as, some of the scenery, as this was a great way to get to see the city of Baltimore.

Somehow we missed mile markers 1 and 2, probably because it was very crowded the first few miles. When we saw the 3 mile marker we were surprised we had already ran 3 miles, as it definitely did not feel like it.

The Maryland Zoo!

Wow! 4 miles in and feeling amazing!

Had an amazing view between miles 4 and 5,

so took a few pictures.

Druid Hill Park

Mile 5 with our clock time...we were at about 52 minutes chip time at this point.

(Clock time is when the gun goes off signaling the start of the marathon

and chip time is when we actually crossed the starting line.)

After the first 5 to 6 miles the marathon crowd started to thin out some more, which made it easier to keep a decent pace and allowed for some more photo opportunities.

Running through the streets of downtown Baltimore.

Woohoo...mile 10! And the crowd support was AMAZING!

They had several local schools out supporting and cheering us on.

This was one of my favorites that we passed!

Halfway, baby! 13.1 miles! And still feeling great!

Our chip time at this point was 2:24:05! We couldn't believe we

had already been running for over 2 hours.

Archway to the other half of the marathon. The arch says,

"Welcome to the Midpoint. The Best is Yet to Come."

At that point we believed it, but after mile 15, we weren't so sure!

Inner Harbor

Inner Harbor

After the Inner Harbor we hit mile 15! We were still feeling pretty good at this point, but knew that we had some hills coming up very soon. So, we decided to stop for a quick picture and our first walk break. We were very proud that we made it 15 miles before taking our first walking break. Little did we know that this would be the first of many walk breaks throughout the last 11.2 miles.

Rob at the 15 mile marker sign!

Me at the 15 mile marker sign!

Once again that is our clock time.

I think my watch said about 2:45,

so we were keeping a decent pace.

Oh, and we have our names on our shirts, not so we could remember who we were, but for the fans. We read a blog and that blogger suggested that you put your name on your shirt. We were so glad that we took this advice because instead of the fans shouting out good job runners, etc., they would actually shout out our names, tell us to keep going, that we were looking strong, and that we could do this. I didn't know how much having our names on our shirts would help, but it definitely gave us that extra push when we had complete strangers cheering us on! It was incredible!

We both felt amazing through the first 15 miles! Unfortunately this feeling didn't last the whole marathon, but in reality we knew it wouldn't, but one can hope, right?! Then, mile 16 hit, and so did the hills! This made the next 7 miles extremely difficult. It probably wouldn't have been so bad, if we hadn't already ran 15 miles, and if the wind wasn't blowing 20 mph right into our face. And, it didn't matter which direction we were running, the wind was still there!

One of the hills!

Another hill!

The other half of the hill! We didn't think it was ever going to end!

But, the great thing about running up a hill, is that eventually you get to run downhill!

It was nice...while it lasted, which wasn't long.

On this downhill stretch, we were lucky enough to run next to one of the relay runners, who was so awesome and asked if we would like a few pictures of us running. So, of course, we took her up on the offer! A big thank you to her for doing this while she was running as well!

And one from behind!

We could always tell when another hill was coming up because we could see the congestion. Those hills were brutal, but we survived them, by doing short walk breaks.

Another hill coming up!

Ahhh...mile 19, which seemed to take forever to get to because of the hills!

And here it is...another hill!

Mile 20! Only 6.2 miles to go!

But, those were probably the hardest 6.2 miles we have ever run!

Chip time at this point was 3:41:56, which goes to show just how

tough those last 6.2 miles really were, physically and mentally.

Mile 21...these miles are taking forever! But, at least we

had a beautiful view for miles 20 through 21 around

Lake Montebello.

A little bit of a flat stretch at mile 23!

Woohoo...only 3.2 miles to go! We kept telling ourselves

that we could do this and then...

another hill was upon us! At this point we thought we were

finished with all the hills, so it was a little disheartening

to see, yet another, hill!

Although the hills were really getting to us, we knew we had come way too far to stop now. Even though we had to stop and take a few more walk breaks than we wanted too, we both knew that we were going to finish this marathon, and we were going to do it together! We passed the infamous Gummy Bear guy, which gave us just that little bit extra to finish the last couple of miles. The Gummy Bear guy stands out there every year and holds a tray of gummy bears, a $1,000 worth, for all the runners. Who knew gummy bears would taste so good after running 24 miles?! After the Gummy Bear guy...we saw...

Mile 25....only 1.2 miles to go!

Seeing this sign was overwhelming and the tears started to well up in my eyes. This was where it really started to hit me that we were really going to do this! So, the next 1.2 miles were emotional, but it was the best feeling ever!

Running the last full mile of the marathon through Camden Yards!

Inside Camden Yards!

Almost through Camden Yards and hitting the home stretch!

The end is in sight!

We FINISHED our first marathon!

Our official chip time was 5:07:17!

Rob with his medal, and of course,

some much needed and deserved water!

Me with my medal and some water!

An up close picture of our medal!

We got them both engraved after the marathon with our

name and finishing time!

We set a new PR for distance and time for the both of us. We actually finished under our original time goal of 5:15, which is what we figured we would finish in when we started our training.

What an amazing experience! I am not sure how else to describe it, other than, it was the most amazing, yet hardest thing we have ever done! But, it was so worth it! And, yes, we are going to do it again...just not sure when our next marathon will be yet!

Thank you all so much for following us on our 26.2 mile journey!

Been Way Too Long... (Long Post)

It has been way too long since I have posted a running blog, and I am very sad about that because I was doing so well. Then our training increased, got more intense, and took a lot of our time, so I just kept saying that I would do it tomorrow, and unfortunately tomorrow never came. I am going to try and summarize the last month of our training in this blog. Thankfully, I always posted little blurbs about our runs on dailymile.com when I logged our runs. In case you didn't already know, I love that site and the support is amazing as well. Well, here a quick run down of our last month of training before the marathon:

September 13---5 mile run---The run went pretty good! A little stiff after a rest day yesterday and tough to get going, but we finished well. 9:32:31 the last mile...not a new PR overall, but it might be a new PR for a 5 mile run. Some how we don't seem to run the 5 mile runs any faster. I think this is the fastest we have run 5 miles together! Pace for today's run was 10:31!

September 14---8 mile run---Took it pretty easy with today's run. It was a little warmer out than we thought it was...83 degrees, which is warmer than it had been for our runs. It was tough getting started today, so an 11:04 pace wasn't too bad. Not as fast as we would have liked, but we ran about 5 hours earlier than normal and did not have enough water in before starting our run. Overall, not a bad run!

September 18---18 mile run---Actually felt really good, considering we only got about 5-1/2 hours of sleep. Expected to run it a lot slower than we did and we took 3 one minute walk breaks, which really seemed to help in the later miles. Here are our splits:

Miles 1-5: 57:46:40

Miles 6-10: 56:45:70

Miles 11-15: 55:10:29

Miles 16-17:21:34:63

Mile 18: 9:57:18

New PR---18 miles! :) Overall, pace...11:10!

September 19---2 mile run----Now, I know why we don't normally run the day after a long run. This run was supposed to be 5 miles, since we missed our run on Thursday we were trying to make it up today, but only ended up running 2 miles. :( Disappointed in the run, but felt very tired and my left leg and foot were really hurting so I didn't want to push it and injure myself this close to the marathon. We at least tried to get the miles in, instead of not going at all, would have liked to at least get 3 of the 5, but 2 was all we could do. Better than nothing...I suppose. Even though I was hurting I still gave it my all for those 2 miles and really didn't want to stop, but knew I needed too! Disappointing run today, but hope it will make tomorrow's 5 mile run better! Today's pace...10:57.

September 20---5 mile run---Great run and much better than yesterday's run! We took it pretty easy still though, just to be safe, and still finished with a decent pace...10:47! Nice cool afternoon to run as well. Felt great!

September 23---5 mile run---I actually felt amazing considering I was tired and am starting to get a sore throat. Needed this run though, both mentally and physically. Feel pretty good now! Oh, and it was a hot and humid run this evening, as well as, buggy! Today's pace...10:13!

September 25---20 mile run---Way too hot and humid for the end of September!! Did a slower pace and more walking than I wanted too, but it was just too hot out today for a 20 mile run. I really hope it is cooler for the race. I thought it was fall?! :) I guess not too bad of a pace considering the time included bathroom breaks and walking, since I wanted to see where we would be at for race day. Today's pace...11:51! Oh, and a new PR---20 miles! The farthest either of us has ever run, and will run, until the marathon!

The next few weeks are our taper runs, so the miles get a little shorter, so we are ready for the marathon!

September 28---5 mile run---AMAZING! Our best run YET! So excited!

We ran every mile at a 10:35 or under pace! Here are our splits:

Mile 1: 10:35:43
Mile 2: 10:14:96
Mile 3: 10:27:27---this is the mile with the most hills and what kept us from being under 50 minutes :(
Mile 4: 9:52:59---another sub 10 mile :) Tried to make up some time!
Mile 5: 8:55:83---another sub 9 mile :)

Total 50:06:08 new PR!

Best of all...felt great at this pace! Great weather too...finally! :) Hope it is here to stay. Almost had our first sub 10 minute pace, but we are getting closer and making progress. Today's pace...10:01! :)

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October 1---8 mile run---Felt so great to finally get back out there after all this rain we have been having. Nice and cool run. Took it pretty easy today and didn't really push it until the last 2 miles (getting dark), since we have 9 miles tomorrow, and still ended up with a 10:38 pace! Crazy! And we felt slooooow!

Another good run and in nice cool October weather...finally! Hope it stays for the next couple of weeks at least! ;)

October 2---9 mile run---A little tired in the beginning from yesterday's 8 mile run, but pushed through it and finished the last 2 miles in about 20 minutes. So nice running in cooler weather this morning. I actually ran in long sleeves today and wasn't dying in it by the end. A little slower than normal, but not too bad after running 8 miles about 12 hours before this run. Today's pace...11:11!

October 4---3 mile run---I felt really good considering it was cold and rainy here in NY this morning. It was 40 degrees and raining during my run this morning. This is definitely my best run pace ever. I finally got my sub-10 pace, granted it was only for 3 miles, but a sub-10 pace nonetheless, and in the rain and cold! I set out with a goal of running these 3 miles in under 30 minutes because our next goal after the marathon is to run a 5k in under 30 minutes. I am really happy with how well this run went this morning. Nothing like a cold, wet, 3 mile run to wake you up! :) Today's pace...9:15! :)

October 7---3 mile run---A quick (and I can actually say that now...3 months ago I could not), easy, 3 mile run. I wanted to do 5 today, but got home from work later than expected and could only fit in 3 miles before it got dark. Felt amazing, even though I was tired from working the last 2 days, and very happy with the pace! :) Great run on a beautiful day! Loving this weather! Today's pace...9:16! :)

October 8---5 mile run---Great run! Easy run! Took it easy because we have our last long run tomorrow...8 miles...before the BIG DAY! So excited! Another great afternoon for a run. Nice, easy pace, which is weird to say when running a 10 minute mile. Not bad considering when we started marathon training we were running 12 minute miles. All of the hard work is definitely paying off. Today's pace...10:02!

October 9---8 mile run---Feeling really good and ready for the marathon next Saturday! Can't believe it is in one week! Took today's run pretty easy as well, since we don't want to burn out for the big day or get hurt. Better to be safe! We were able to keep a pretty even pace throughout today's run. Here are our spilts for today's run:

Mile 1: 11:16:10
Mile 2: 11:01:63
Mile 3: 10:55:74
Mile 4: 11:01:78
Mile 5: 11:32:63
Mile 6: 11:25:89---and we walked for about 1-1/2 minutes to help prepare for race day.
Mile 7: 11:07:68
Mile 8: 11:03:57

Good run! :) Today's pace...11:10!

October 11---3 mile run---Another easy run. Took it easy on this 3 mile run, since the marathon is in 5 days! :) A little warmer than I would have liked, but still a good run. Very easy week...until Saturday! ;) Today's pace...10:20!

October 12---3 mile run---Feeling better and better everyday I run. Hope Saturday will feel just as good! This was our last 3 mile run before the BIG DAY! Have a 2 mile walk on Thursday and then the marathon Saturday! Wow! October 16th seemed so far away 3 to 4 months ago. Another easy 3 today and not too warm this evening! And a better pace than yesterday! :) Today's pace...9:48!

October 14---2 mile walk---Last 2 miles before the marathon on Saturday! It was hard to only walk, but made ourselves walk knowing that we have 26.2 miles to run on Saturday! :) Got the 2 mile walk in after all this rain finally Feeling great and super excited for Saturday. Picked up our race packets today! Exciting! Today's pace...16:49.

Final Running Stats

Here are our final running stats:

July 12th through October 24th:

392.27-----Total Miles
81.67-----Total Time
20 ----------Lbs Burned
69---------Total Workouts
0.02------Around the World
1,241---TVs Powered
20.65------Gas Saved
382.39-----Donuts Burned

I got way behind on our running blog as our training increased, and as the marathon got closer, so I have posted our running stats from the entire training period and for the week following the marathon. It is amazing the amount of miles we ran in just 3 months. We have spent 3 full days and then another 9 hours on the fourth day running throughout our training.