Marshall University Marathon

     Marshall University Marathon is my 5th marathon.  After completing the Louisville Marathon in October 2011 and ING NYC Marathon in November 2011 I was not planning on running another marathon for while, at least for a year or two.  I was planning on becoming a Half Ironman at Augusta in September 2012 but it just didn't happened.  I decided not to compete in Augusta because I was not ready.  I could have done it but I would have suffered too much and I thought if I do that then I would never want to compete again.  So after a long time I decided not to go to Augusta.  I couldn't talk about it to anyone for a long time because I was upset. This is something I really wanted to do this year but life got in the way.   It is very hard to fit in all the training when you have 3 kids playing soccer, swimming, cheerleading, and cross country.  I didn't want to miss anything so my training suffered.  I was still running thru all this but I wasn't getting in the bike rides or the swims.  Plus a couple of my friends were training for their first marathon.  Tami who was adamant about me and Jim running this marathon, I kept telling her I do not have any desire to run another one right now.  So what does Tami do? She finds the perfect training partner for me! Really???  Yes!  She found Karen and James who are training for their first marathon.  Who would ever think 2 total strangers would meet one day and start running together.  It was a very unique situation.  She would always ask for my advice about marathons since I had 4 under my belt so far.  I kept telling her I love  to run but I am not doing another marathon.  I will train with you but I am not running a marathon this year.  We were running all our long runs on Saturdays and then I couldn't anymore because of my kids playing soccer.  They were playing anywhere from 2-5 games every weekend.  So my weekend training had become very limited.  Thank goodness her schedule during the week is flexible like mine and we started doing our long runs on Thursdays.  Karen kept telling me if I register for the race by a certain time I would get a Brooks jacket, a tech shirt, a medal and it's only $60!!!  WOW!!  That's a really good deal.  Of course Jim is always game for a challenge and a good deal!!  So we finally both signed up for the race! 
    

 On November 10, 2012 Jim, Tami, and myself loaded up the van and drove to West Virginia to packet pick up. It was a very small expo. It was held by a local company at Marshall University. Me, Jim, and Tami met up with Karen and James at packet pick up. We all drooled over our new Brooks jackets and tech shirts. We were so excited about them!! 

                                                                              

               After packet pick up we walked around campus to check out part of the route.

                                                 These are a few of the things we saw!

                                                                                 Coy, Tami, Me, Jim, James, Karen, and Lonnie

 

                                                                    Our Running Crew      

     Sunday, November 11, 2012 it's race day!!  I was getting ready to start my 5th marathon.  Before we came to West Virginia we decided that we were going to do the Jeff Galloway method to make it thru this race.  We planned to run 4:30 and walk 30 seconds.  I needed to try something different to try and PR today!!  Coy ( First in Philly) was running with Tami to help her complete her first marathon.  Karen, Lonnie, Jim and myself all stuck together until mile 12.  Karen and Lonnie were staying ahead of us and they were looking great!!  We told them to go on because I started way too fast and needed to slow down.                                                        
                                                                                    

                                         

 

      The Jeff Galloway method was working wonderfully!! I was 2 minutes ahead of when we ran our 22 miler.  Each mile was getting harder but I still felt like I could complete it with a PR!!  Our walks were getting longer than the 30 seconds but once we started running again our runs were longer too to make up our walk time.  At mile 24 I felt hungry but I could not take another GU! My stomach wouldn't let me.  The last 1 1/2 we managed to run the rest of the way even tho it was getting harder and harder.  We came into the stadium  at the top of the hill and we heard, "From Paris, Ky!!" I was like YEAH!!  That's us!!  and then they said, "Karen Cooper" I actually got to see her cross the finish line!!  That was very exciting since we had done all this training together.  Then we had to run down a steep hill into the stadium, then onto the astro turf to run around the field to the finish line.  Right before we got to the finish line they gave us a football to carry with us.  This was a very exciting time for me since I PR'd by 20 minutes!!  OMG!!!!  I couldn't believe I just finished this race in 5:04:11                                          

 This was a very special moment for all of us and I am so glad I got to share it with all these people!!

 Thanks Marshall for bringing us all together!!!