A Weekend In New Braunfels For Marathon #10!!

The weekend before Halloween, we took a mini family vacation to New Braunfels to relax for a couple days, and then do my 10th marathon! 

We left after Boston got out of school on Thursday, and we stayed at Scott's parent's timeshare that was right across the street from the marathon start/finish. It was much nicer and cozier than staying at a hotel, and it was so convenient to be so close to my race! 

We enjoyed being as lazy as possible all morning on Friday. 

Around 3:00 we finally got out of our pajamas and headed out for some family fun. 

We went to San Marcos for a glass bottomed boat ride on the San Marcos Springs. 

They also had a little aquarium that we walked around while we waited for our boat ride. 

It was really cool to be able to see all the fish and turtles swimming around under the water! The water was really clear and we could see all the way to the bottom. Boston, our little animal lover, was fascinated. 

Brody liked it too!

After out boat ride, we went to Landa Park. Brody and I had fun on the swings! 

Boston had fun playing with a little girl at the park. When we got back in the car we asked if the girl he was playing with was fun, and he said, "Ya! And she was also cue...funny." Ha ha. He was about to say she was cute, and then changed it to funny at last second because he got embarrassed. My 5 year old can't already be thinking girls are cute can he???!

After the park, we went back to the timeshare for dinner. That was another one of the perks of staying at the timeshare. There was a kitchen, so we didn't have to eat out. We made rice, orange chicken, green beans, and edamame on Thursday night, and had the leftovers on Friday night. 

I did an easy 3 mile run that evening and then got things ready for my race the next morning! 

I was so excited and nervous for this marathon! I was nervous to remember how bad the last few miles were going to hurt, but I was so excited to be back to marathon running again after taking a few years off.  I was ready to put the 7 months of training I had done to the test. I had joined a running group when Brody was 9 weeks old and had been running 5 days a week ever since then in my attempt to get back to the running shape I was once in. Much patience was needed as progress was very slow, and sometimes it seemed nonexistent. I missed my old running buddies, and I wanted to be able to run with them again so badly (Still working on it, but getting closer, and able to run with them on some runs now). Every once in awhile I would have a good run and realize that I was slowly and surely making progress. It was really fun and helpful having the support of an awesome running group with a coach for this marathon. I was also so very grateful for my treadmill (Thanks Scott!) that allowed me to squeeze in runs where I could with a baby's schedule. I did the majority of my runs on my treadmill, but I always looked forward to Tuesday nights when I got to meet up with the team for track workouts, and Saturday mornings for long runs. 

I woke up race morning around 4AM to allow myself plenty of time to get ready. The race was going to start at 7:10AM, so I was ready a bit early. :) I had scrambled eggs on a plain english muffin for breakfast, pumped a bottle for Brody, read my scriptures, read some texts and good luck wishes from friends and running buddies in my running group, and hung out in our nice warm room until about 30 minutes before the race started. Normally I'm standing in the cold or sitting on a bus a good two hours before the start of a race. I loved staying right across the street from the starting line! 

I woke Scott up right before I left and had him take a couple pictures of me. The weather was perfect at the start of the race. It was in the 50's, but it got really warm really fast. It was probably in the mid 80's when I finished. Good thing I trained in much, much hotter weather. I've gotten used to running in the heat, but I still prefer, and run my best, in colder weather. I didn't know exactly what time I was shooting for in the race, but I knew I wanted to finish under 4 hours. I also wanted to attempt running a negative split (second half of the race faster than the first). I was feeling great and ready to run my best, but around mile 6 my right leg started acting funny. I don't know how to explain what it was doing, but it just wasn't working right. I put my heart into training for this marathon and I had waited so long to run it. I did everything I could to make sure this marathon would be a good one, so I was really worried when my leg started acting weird so early in the race. I said a prayer that my leg would be able to function normally. I really didn't want this race to be a disaster. My leg didn't didn't get better right away, but my prayer was definitely answered!

I ran the first half of the race in 1:50 which was exactly what I was hoping for. I was still feeling great when I got to the the half way point, and my leg was doing much better! I was looking forward to the halfway point because that was when I was going to turn my music on. The music gave me an extra boost and helped me pick up the pace to start working towards a negative split. I was able to keep a faster pace until mile 20. At mile 20 my legs started feeling like jello, but I was still feeling really good considering I had just run 20 miles. All I could do was keep moving however fast my legs would let me, and try to keep my thoughts positive, which is really, really hard during the last miles of a marathon! This course was by far the most challenging marathon course I had ever run because of the hills and heat. There were some big beastly hills the last 6 miles. After a giant hill that lasted about a mile around mile 24, every part of me wanted to be done running. I went through the same thought process that I go through during every marathon I run, asking myself what I was thinking and wondering why the heck I signed up for this marathon. I didn't know how in the world I was going to keep running all the way to the finish line. You would think that your brain would be happy to realize that it had just run 25 miles and it only had one little baby mile to go, but it's quite the opposite. That one little baby mile is literally 100 times harder and longer than the previous 25 miles. About a half mile or so from the finish, I saw my cute, sweet friend Gin that I met in my running group. She had driven over an hour with her two boys to see me finish. I needed something, anything, at that point to lift my spirits. The mixture of the pain I was in and the relief of seeing Gin running towards me with a big smile on her face almost made me cry. I was able to pick up the pace a lot as she started running with me and encouraging me to the finish line. It surprised me that I was able to pick up the pace because I thought I had absolutely nothing left. It's amazing what our bodies are capable of that we don't even realize! 

My three sweet and supportive boys were there to see me finish in 3:44! I was really happy with that time for being 9 months postpartum! Even though I didn't run a negative split (my second half was 4 minutes slower), I think aiming for one helped my time a lot because I didn't go out too fast. I was so grateful that I was able to finish this race feeling like I had run my best, and with a time that I was happy with. That's all I wanted out of marathon #10, and I felt so grateful that things worked out.

I could barely walk after I finished. My legs were trashed. I hobbled and limped over to the massage table and paid a dollar per minute for a massage. It was worth every penny. I originally told him 15 minutes, but ended up doing 25. 

After my massage we rushed back to our room so I could shower before we would be kicked out. We were already an hour past checkout time when we got back to our room, so we packed up and left as fast as we could. We had to drive straight to Boston's soccer game. I was starving by the time we got to his game and all I wanted to eat was Rudy's turkey and brisket. It was kind of funny because everything else sounded disgusting, so I waited to eat until after his game when we could go to Rudy's. It was about 5:00 before I had my first meal after the marathon! Food never tasted so good! After dinner we rushed to a trunk-or-treat party. I had the worst headache at the trunk-or-treat party. Scott could feel the veins in my head pounding. I still had some adrenaline from the race that was keeping me going for the rest of the day, but I could not wait to rest, and sleep!! 

On our way home from the trunk-or-treat party we made a donut stop at Dunkin Donuts. For some reason I had been craving a donut for a couple weeks leading up to the marathon, but I decided to wait until after the marathon to eat a donut because I was trying to eat healthy so I could run my best. Finally around 10:30PM we had both kids in bed, and I got to sit on the couch and eat my donuts! Scott and I shared a couple donuts, and oh my gosh, they were so good!! Definitely worth the wait because they tasted that much better because of it! 

And that's the story of marathon #10! I feel so blessed to have running in my life!