Mrs. H. Runs a Marathon

What a weekend! Initially I was a little stressed out by the amount of visitors we had coming into town but it ended up being really great. My sister went with me to the marathon expo at the Philly Convention Center on Friday, which is where the nerves set in.

On Friday night we went to Sampan to carbo load with our friend Will, who was in town for a wedding. I didn't end up at the club with the rest of the crew, the best decision ever, but it was still a very fun night!

The infamous "Willfie"

On Saturday we had more friends come into town for lunch at Sardine Bar, where I continued to carbo load. It was a fun little day with friends but I was distracted by race nerves and the day  ahead. On Saturday afternoon my mom came into town with homemade pot pie for the final meal before the race. 

After a big dinner we watched the movie "Run, Fat Boy Run," for a little marathon motivation and were in bed before 10pm. I was very thankful to have spent the weekend with great friends and family and couldn't wait to get this run over with!

We were up early Sunday morning to eat our English Muffins with peanut butter and stretch out for the long day of running ahead. We jammed out to Chris Brown and got pumped up for the run. It was finally go time.

Andrew took me on the motorcycle to the starting line and I met up with the Clif Bar 4:00 pace group, led by a guy named Jo. My strategy was to stay with Jo no matter what and hit that 4:00 marathon time, a 9:09 pace for the 26.2 miles. Luckily, I had a full cheer squad throughout the course, which was amazing.

I won't go through the details of the day but I felt really bad at 16, painfully made my way through Manayunk and realized I could hit my time at mile 20 if I just kept moving. With less than a mile to go, Jo the pacer told me walking wasn't an option and I would finish at 3:59 if I just kept moving. I saw all my friends and family on the road into the finish line and I hobbled as fast as I could to finish at 3:59:14. I had hit my goal and it felt amazing.

500 feet from the finish line

Dan crushed the marathon at 2:53 and a Boston qualifying spot!

After the marathon we headed home for a celebratory brunch at our house. I was beyond happy and able to ignore the pain in my legs to enjoy the time celebrating! My stomach was weird from all the Gu I ate throughout the race but Andrew, Dan and I ended our marathon day with the best way to celebrate, a meal at McDonald's.

Thank you to everyone for all the well wishes throughout the marathon! It felt amazing to train for the marathon and reach my goals, so I appreciate all the support! Next marathon - Chicago 2015 :)