My First 26.2- Finally blogged from last year!

So, I just realized it is getting close to a year from my last blog entry and on top of that my beautiful daughter still isn't in our family line up.  That is because a sweet friend helped me with my blog and I have no idea how to add her! Maybe this year I can figure it out!

SO... since it has been so long since my last post, I had to ask myself the obvious questions of why, what and how. Why so long? What will be my first post? How can I do better? 

I think since  the biggest accomplishment of 2014 personally was running and completing a marathon, and running season has begun we can start with a marathon post. I am pretty sure that last season on mile 21 my body along with my brain decided that it was a good idea to NEVER do this 26.2 miler thing again, EVER!  Well, running season has started, and we are  about 1.5 months into training and 10 miles in. Not sure what ever happened to that discussion at 21 miles last January. Oh yea, we completely forgot! 

So briefly I just want to re-cap last year's race. I actually wrote this last year. 

On training: 

Life continues, running continues, and the only way to fit those two together is to lose sleep, get your run in early and go on with life. 3:45 AM my friends every Saturday morning is really early! That means no glass of wine the night before to kick off the weekend (with two little kids I kinda need wine) , and probably not too much fun Saturday night because I don't know about you, but after a 21 miler and getting up at 3:45 I am really tired and frankly look and feel like....well you can fill in the blank.

On my partner: 

I was only able to run this marathon not just because I trained, but because I had someone to train with!  Do you know how hard it is to find a running partner?  I want to run my way, my pace, my time.When Jennie asked me to go run on a Saturday I was like sure...why not? Jennie and I quickly found out we were good together. Someone that runs your pace, but can push you at the same time. Well, that is just hard to find. Jennie helped me achieve my goal. Thank you Lord for this meeting. I also have to say that my husband was very supportive of this goal, his only day of the week to sleep in and here my alarm is going off! Thanks honey! 

On the run:

As we waited, my nerves began to build. I needed to fake pee, I got the chills, and I just could not believe it was race day! The gun went off at 7:00AM and it took us 8 minutes to get to the starting line. 7:08 and we were racing. We ran in the 8:40's for 13.1. We PR'd our half split at 1:55! We saw Scott, James, Dad, Mom and more friends at mile almost 17 and we felt good, except Jennie was having knee pain. Memorial was the hardest stretch for me. The infamous wall-oh yes I felt it. You keep hearing people say you are in single digits now, but then you think about it and yes you have ran so far, yet you still have 6 miles left. Equate that to time and for us that was another hour of running. The cheering on Memorial was the best and I probably needed it the most here. You actually felt obligated to complete strangers to just keep running although I felt like crying and walking! By memorial all the runners are pretty spread out, so you feel like everyone is watching you. It's like you just can't stop.

I have to say that 23-24 mile mark was the hardest mile of the entire race. I wanted to hit 24, because I knew that meant 2 miles left, but it felt like that 24 marker would NEVER come.  At this point, Jenny was really helping me to finish. I was hurting all over, and I remember thinking I never want to feel this way again. I tried SO hard to think happy thoughts or concentrate on something else like my music, but all I could think about was how bad I hurt! I not only was hurting, but I was nauseated...extremely nauseated. At this point in downtown, less than a mile to go I just wanted to stop...then I looked over and saw a lady laying on the ground with medics and I thought to myself she is so close yet she is not going to finish. After I crossed the finish line, I stopped and just fought back tears. Remember that nausea bit? Yea, well on the way home going 70 on 10, I puked out the window. Let me just tell you, if you have never done that it is an experience for ALL involved! I coated our car in gatoraid and water, probably some one elses, and gave Scott's hair a slight bath too. Yea....this happened. I have never puked during or after a workout in my life!! 

Time: 

4:19 finish time. 

This year is still all about running, but with a different goal in mind and that is TIME. We have really improved our training times already and we hope to continue to do so over the next 4-5 months! Wish us luck. Our goal is 4:00, but anything in the 3:50 something would be fun to achieve! I know Jennie would agree. 

XOXO, 

The Zuehlke's

Jenny and I. Our Finisher Picture for the Houston 2014 Marathon.