Lisa's Marathon Training Journal: I DID IT!!!

Ok, here it is. The long-awaited final update...

I am very happy to report that the 5 months I spent training for my first marathon were well spent. The big finale was a big success and actually quite fun! :-)

I had hoped to finish in under 6 hours (to not have to worry about the 6 1/2 hour cut-off time), and I managed to finish in 5:58:37! That translates to about 13:41 min/mile. Not too shabby for a newbie, if I do say so myself! :-)

Here's my awesome photo-finish...

(Note that the clock shows "clock time" but my actual "chip time" is 20 minutes less since it took that long for me to get to the start line! That's how long it takes when you have 20,000 runners...)

As for the race itself, there's not much to report. It was awesome! The views of the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz were fantastic (we were blessed with not too much fog, so we could actually see them.) I had a minor mishap around mile 3 where I tripped over some uneven pavement, but I stopped at the first-aid station (which was conveniently located right there), got a band-aid and I was on my way! I was so excited and happy and filled with adrenaline, that I didn't even notice THE BIG HILL at mile 6 that everyone was dreading until I was half-way up! (But, also because the hills we ran on our training runs were about 1,000 times more difficult, which is why Coach Terry says we run such difficult routes... to make race day seem even easier!) I started to get a bit tired (understandably) around mile 20 was eagerly awaiting the finish line, but I had Mark to keep me company from mile 16 to the end, and around mile 21 or so, my awesome group of TNT groupies (that would be Sara, Jenn, and Mike) joined in and kept me going strong to the finish.

Here I am checking my time (with Mark and Mike keeping me company)...

... and then happy to finally see the finish line!

I have to admit, I was (and still am!) somewhat surprised by how easy it all seemed. But I guess that's why I spent 5 months training, right? In the end, I was pretty sore for only about 2 days. I took two weeks off of running and then started training again for a half-marathon! :-D

Yep, that's right! If you have visited this site since late October, you may have noticed I updated my countdown in the right side-bar. I'm now training for the Kaiser Permanente Half-Marathon in San Francisco on February 1st, 2009! And I've already got a short list of races picked out for my next marathon! ;-)

But before we get ahead of ourselves thinking about the next marathon, here's my first marathon experience condensed to 8 minutes (filmed and edited by Mark Lakata). Enjoy!