"I Still Think You're the Best!!!"
Said a man passionately at about mile 4-5 of the marathon. I know why he said it. I was so off the back of the pack, it wasn’t even close. I thought about my dad and how he would probably cheer the same thing. I ran the next mile in tears. I wanted to be with the pack! I want to be able to compete!! 🙁
From the start, I knew I was going to be in back of the pack. I knew my legs had felt terrible post-Chicago. Terrible. But, I was still hoping I could erk out a sub-3… but the legs were not cooperating, at all.
As in: I struggled to stay upright and not trip over my clumsy and somewhat locking-at-the-knee legs at the start (at mile 2 already! And I wasn’t going that fast!). I’ve had that feeling in training lately, but it’s come on sooner and sooner in training sessions. Never as early as mile 2 :(.
I stopped to stretch for a brief moment before mile 2. After that brief stop, I wondered if I could finish… 24.2 more miles? Oh, Lord….
But I decided to just run. I’d run as fast as the legs would let me and back off when I felt like I’d trip over them. To “run happy”, which was my original goal.
Unfortunately, that led to a 3:24 finish , my slowest ever. But I fought through, didn’t stop after that first stretch, and ran with a smile on my face the whole way (except after the “I still think you’re the best” guy) :).
Although my slowest finish, by far, I am proud of myself for putting myself out there and still finishing a race that would have been easy to drop out of. This was an amazing opportunity, and I am humbled by it and the company that I met along the way.
Until tomorrow or Tues,
Runningly yours,
Nichole
