MidSouth Marathon part Roku

Done!!!!!!!!! Can't believe I just completed 26.2 miles. As soon as I could my shoes came off and I was barefoot :), well except for my pink injinji socks. But it felt so good getting the shoes off my feet, lol........It didn't feel so good 10 minutes later when I tried to put them back on and my left leg cramped up from my calf to my toes. OWIEEEEEEEEE! Didn't think I was ever going to get it loosened up and my toes uncurled (and those toes weren't curled in a good way). I'm pretty sure that cramp is why my leg is so sore today.

Final time was 4:40:40, very easy to remember and kind of unusual especially since I'm 40 years old. A friend suggested I play those numbers in the lottery, lol.

77/158 overall

3/9 40-44 female age group (but first won a masters award so I got 2nd age group)

not sure where I placed female overall and too lazy too count it up :)

The bling!!!

Jackie asked me afterwards if there was anything in my training I would have done different but there wasn't. I felt strong at least until the headwinds but those affected everybody. I heard later that even most of the faster runners were 35-40 seconds off their usual times per mile--haven't verified this but everybody did say they were struggling with the winds. The only way I could have trained better was to have thrown in some midday runs in Central Texas (notoriously windy).

So war wounds--hobbling about today because of the left foot and calf, a blister on my right pinkie toe, and a bit of chafing on the inside of my thighs from the shorts under my running skirt. The chafing I discovered in the shower afterwards, OUCH, OUCH, OUCH! Little bit sore through my shoulders (leaning forward into the wind) but otherwise I don't feel any worse than after my first half marathon last year. If it wasn't for the left leg I could even go for an easy run today.

Thanks to Jackie for running with me in my first marathon and to the entire Cabot crew for the support and training (esp. Brenda, Cindy, Lisa, and Jackie). TWB and Terry were also a major cheering section as was my Twitter friends (I'll leave somebody out if I try to list them all). Love to Patti, Becky, Karen, Brice, and Tala!! Another thank you to Jeff Clark, the Marathon Trucker for the encouraging emails and advice. A huge shout-out to my friend Alyson who bought the very cute "Running. I do that." tee-shirt as a 1st marathon gift. Thank you Aly!!!!! and here's the pic of me wearing it to my ohmygod, I finished the marathon celebratory pancake dinner that I'd been obsessing about all week. Wow, sound like I'm giving an Academy Award speech or something :).