MISSISSIPPI BLUES MARATHON!

Rather than wait until the end of this post, I want to thank Jay up front for everything that he did to make this day the best it could possibly be for me, from the day I nervously registered for the event with his blessing to the night before the race when he drove me to Jackson to attend the expo and eat dinner with me before heading back home with the kids (while I stayed in a hotel there to attempt uninterrupted sleep and easy race morning logistics)... from watching the kids while I went on training runs (without a single complaint, ever), to helping massage and roll out my sore muscles when needed, to cooking healthy recovery meals while I iced my legs and rested, to allowing me to spend money on new running gear on a regular basis (I'm on my 3rd pair of shoes from this training cycle...), to listening to me worry and stress over every little hurdle that arose during training, to being literally my shoulder to cry on when I got overwhelmed, to just being my absolute number one biggest source of support and encouragement throughout. Sweetie, I will be forever grateful for the love you have shown me while I set out to make this day a reality. Thank you!

So. The race...

Picking up my race bib and swag bag at the expo

After checking into the hotel, walking to the expo to pick up my race packet, eating dinner, and sending my family home (yes, Jay drove to Jackson and back twice in 18 hours so that I'd have company the night before the race and also not have to drive myself home after the race), I finally started to relax as I showered, set out my race gear, and poured a glass of wine (to calm my nerves and theoretically help me fall asleep more easily). Sophie and Christina arrived around 9:00pm (after putting their little ones to bed) and got their stuff together, then joined me for a pre-race toast and some girl talk before we all headed to bed. We were tired and yawning and expected a great night of sleep, but we were all so nervous that nobody fell asleep before 1:30-2:00am, and I laid awake listening to the thunderstorms until they stopped around 2:30am, then I got up to do some yoga and stretching, played on my phone, and eventually drifted off around 3:00am or later (not sure... I stopped looking at the numbers...)

We awoke to my phone alarm at 5:00am (luckily I set it, since the scheduled hotel wake-up call never happened). We wanted plenty of time to eat (and let it digest), drink some coffee, use the potty a few times, and prance around in anticipation... At 6:30am we left the hotel and went down to the starting line, which was only a quarter mile away. Best decision ever to stay at the host hotel, even without sleep. (Thankfully, the night two days before a race is the most important sleep-wise, and I slept great on Thursday.)

At the starting line, ready to go!

The day started off with temps in the mid 50's and moved into the upper 60's by the end of the race. It was overcast most of the race, but I was still glad I had my visor on to keep the sun out of my eyes. The race was at capacity due to Memphis' St. Jude Marathon being cancelled back in December due to an ice storm (many of those runners rescheduled their marathon for the next closest race that was nearby), so it was probably a little more crowded than in years past, especially as the race has grown in popularity and experience. There were no waves/corrals, so we just lined up in the middle, near the 4:30 pacer. (We had a very loose goal of finishing around 4:30, with our main goal being just to finish together and have fun throughout the race.)

That first mile was a little slow due to the crowd, but we quickly picked up speed and ran our comfortable 9:30-10:00 pace for a few miles before taking our first refueling break at mile 5. We went through one of the prettier neighborhoods in Jackson between miles 7-9 and there were a lot of locals out cheering in their driveways, so that was nice. We kept up our comfortable pace until mile 10 (another refueling break), then started to alternate faster and slower miles due to the hills (there were more, closer together, as the race went on, and they weren't as easy to run on tired legs as they were at the beginning of the race). At the halfway point my Garmin said 2:13 and we were ahead of schedule for a 4:30 finish, but we were already noticing some sore muscles/joints and feeling fatigued. We knew we only had 2 miles to go until we saw our families though, so we pressed on.

Ecstatic to have spotted our families!

Sophie was across the street with her family at this point (we didn't leave her, I promise!)

When we got to mile 15 we started looking for them. They were stationed at a little park right along the race course, and it was so good to see them and get some hugs all around. Jay had the kids make signs to cheer us on, and he brought us some homebrew to 'cheers' ourselves. I know race spectating is hard work, especially for those doing so with little kids in tow, so we especially appreciated the pick-me-up that gave us. We took off from them with smiles on our faces and about 11 miles still to run...

Making their signs with the Do-A-Dot paints

My girl got a skirt to match her mama (and she wanted to race with me so badly!)

Sophie caught up with us and we headed out

Playing at the playground while we ran for another two hours

The course looped through a particularly gorgeous neighborhood at this point, then made it's way back to the frontage road. I hit "the wall" around mile 20 as I was running just in front of Sophie and Christina coming out of that neighborhood and they watched me just come to a complete stop. They asked me what was wrong and I seriously had no clue other than the fact that my legs just decided to stop all on their own. It was the weirdest thing because I'd been feeling fine and had just high-fived Mack (the crew's "coach") during one of the out-and-back loops. A quick stretch got me moving again slowly and we realized as we moved into new mileage territory (well, for Christina and I... this was Sophie's second marathon) that we were going to have to alternate walking and running in shorter intervals for the remainder of the race in order to get it done. Looking at our official splits, it's cool to see that we hit the 20-mile mark at 3:31, which is about 10 minutes faster than we completed our 20-mile training run a few weeks ago. Our splits were: 50:20 at 5 miles (10:04 pace), 1:41:44 at 10 miles (10:10 pace), 2:32:31 at 15 miles (10:10 pace), and 3:30:55 at 20 miles (10:33 pace). The final 10K took us 1:10:20 (11:21 pace). That's a significant pace change and just goes to show you how very hard the last 6.2 miles of a marathon are!

Once we got to the frontage road, we could feel the pull of the home stretch. It was a section of road we know well due to the Watermelon Classic and the proximity to the Ag Museum, Children's Museum, and Natural Science Museum (all places we frequent as moms to small children). It was so very weird to be running all over a town that we only ever visit via car... Christina hit her own wall around mile 22, and my calves randomly cramped up to the point that I almost fell over a few times during that section (definitely freaked out the girls and I could have SWORN somebody had grabbed my calves from behind to pinch and twist them - that's the best way I can describe the sensation), so we started stretching as needed rather than just taking walk breaks (and ate some extra fuel in the hopes it would stop the cramping). Once we crossed the highway, we were SO READY to get out of the hills and be done, but we still had a couple miles to go. And a few more hills...

Turning the final corner, seeing our families and the finish line, and getting emotional

Finishing hand-in-hand. A great end to a good training cycle!

 We managed to run the final 1.2 miles without stopping (and at our comfortable pace, not our robot pace!) and it was SO GOOD to cross that finish line and receive our medals. We group hugged, we cried a little, and then we posed for our victory photos!

We finished in 4:41:15 (10:44 pace) and are quite pleased with that. It felt awesome to go greet our families while wearing those gigantic guitars!

I am extremely proud of all of us and am looking forward to another marathon someday. Perhaps sooner than later...

And I can't end this post without thanking Sophie and Christina and the whole Crew for training with me, planning with me, pushing me, holding me up, and getting me through it all. It has been quite the experience and I'm so glad I did it with my girls by my side. Finishing with a smile on my face was my number one goal, and those photos above prove that I met that goal - thank you!