I'm finally back from my quick weekend get away. Sorry I didn't post sooner but the internet at my hotel was crappy and I was way too tired and sore to get off my but and find a place with a good internet connection. But here it goes:

Saturday

The weather here was crappy and I was freaking out thinking that my flight would be cancelled like the other 200 flights that were. But, I was lucky. The picture above was from the T-station waiting to get to the airport.

After an hour and a half flight I made it to Virginia Beach. From there, I went to my taxi driver who was waiting for me. I got to like my taxi driver because he shattered any sterotype of old people and driving. He was the sweetest little old man with a sack of lead in his foot. He then took me to the convention center where I signed up for the race and checked out the "expo".


There were a ton of people there. I think there was 15,000 people who participated in all of the races!

Ronald was even there. I asked him if he knew he was killing millions of people with his food and he kindly gave me this pose as his only response.


The convention center where the running expo was. Very nice!

With the expo behind me I went got some delicious food and checked out my surroundings.





RACE:
Sunday I felt amazing, and revved up to race. Come on I hadn't run in a week. I'll give you an idea at what I was feeling throughout the race.

Start:
There were tons and tons of people, almost too many people at the starting line. We lined up behind pacers which is a great thing because I had no way of pacing myself otherwise. As the horn sounded off, everyone was elbow to elbow for the first 13 miles.
I was smart I didn't run with the 7:30 minute mile pacer, I opted to run with the 8 minute mile pacer instead. The only thing was the pacer was definitely going faster then an 8 minute mile.

5 miles:
Everything was running very smoothly and I was pumped but holding it back for later in the race. We followed the road along the shore line with all the hotels and shops. It was very nice.

8 miles:
Still feeling very good. We were running through a military base and it was a cool experience since I've never been through one in my life.

13 miles:
We ran along the boardwalk next to the shore line the wind was blowing and my hands were freezing. I also felt like I should surpass the pacer at mile 20 because I was feeling exceptional.

20 miles:
I pass the 8 minute mile pacer by quite a bit and I'm starting to feel the wall. I haven't really kept this good of a pace on my training runs and never ran more then 20 miles so I've been pretty oblivious to what the wall feels like. Just imagine feeling good then hitting a point where you feel like your 300lbs. Plus I was feeling some big blisters on my feet by now. Ouch. By this time my pace has slowed dramatically but I wasn't going to stop to walk. I sucked it up and kept going. The volunteers were cheering and that was very helpful.

26 miles:
By this time I'm back on the Boardwalk and can see the finish line. My legs have disowned me but I couldn't stop now. What...there were little old men in front of me I couldn't stop. So what did I do? I sprinted the last 1.2 miles, I don't know how I did it but I did.

Finish:
It felt amazing that I ran 26.2 miles and I was in a great deal of pain. After I got some treats and my medal and everything else I hobbled 25 blocks back to my hotel and it took me about 45 minutes. All I can say is running a Marathon is a true test of how much pain you can endure and it isn't for the faint at heart. However, I highly recommend everyone try one at least once in their life.