I'm so happy for you, Andrea. It wasn't easy, but you did it. Congratulations! Your son will one day understand just how badass his mom really is.

I'm so happy for you, Andrea. It wasn't easy, but you did it. Congratulations! Your son will one day understand just how badass his mom really is.

 Thanks Lily! How did you do this morning?

 

I did fine for me, in my mind, considering I ran another marathon 2 weeks ago and it was super windy today. But I don't really want to talk about my race, because I will be admonished regarding the way I went about it. But it's ok. The most important thing is to be happy with what we do. It doesn't matter what other people say.

True but one thing I forgot to mention in my RR was how much I focused on the conversations we had in this group, our talks about finish times around 4:15:00, and even finish times around 4 hours and it just pissed me off even more knowing that I couldn't give my all thanks to some stupid ass stomach issue that is still bugging me now, I can feel it in my stomach  I tried my hardest not to think about those goals, but couldn't help it at times and kept pushing myself even when I wanted to walk the rest of the way at mile 21... I felt beaten and even though I told myself to be happy with just finishing, deep down I was severely disappointed in myself for not coming close to my goal of 4:15:00 .. part of me wonders if things would have been easier had I never mentioned my goals  I knew some were keeping track of my 10k, half marathon and 30k mat times and notice me slowing down or not finishing in the predicted time and think "she's crashing and burning, she went out too fast, she hit the wall", and there was no way I could tell anybody that I was seriously hurting in my stomach 

But I try to ignore that and just be thankful that I finished, and am now a marathoner even if things didn't go as planned or smoothly, maybe, just maybe this means I am stronger than I thought...

FreeSoul, you just ran a freakin marathon, those things are hard!  Yes, we'd have been happy to see you cruise in in 4:14:59, but I for one am happy for you that you got it done!  What happens between the start and the finish line is no joke, and there are about 233548654206409 variables at play.  Now you've done it, and that's worth a lot.

I also made the mistake in recovery of thinking that my legs might recover faster because I didn't run my best race during the marathon, and it wasn't really my legs that were taxed.  Then I tried to race a 5K and OMG I felt every mile of that marathon all over again, and came out of THAT feeling like I was dragging little lead weights with me on every step.  Don't make the same mistake I did- you owe yourself a rest.

PS- You beat me in two different ways this weekend- your finishing time is a tad faster than mine AND your positive split was smaller than mine! 

You came, you saw, you struggled a bit...you conquered!  The female Julius Caesar of the forum!

Sorry about the problems you experienced but I think you did great overall.  You stayed determined and persevered and you got it done!  Congratulations!  Now enjoy those well-earned rest days

Congratulations on your first marathon FS. Sorry about the stomach bug but now you have this under your belt and the best part is that it sounds like you are ready to do this again. Again, nice job!

BTW, it's OK to be pissed even though this was a situation beyond your control.  In my first marathon, I was hoping to finish between 3:10 and 3:15 and was fortunate enough to do so.  If I had finished in 3:40, I would have been seriously angry and upset.  It won't make you feel any better now but in a couple of weeks, you'll be able to put it in perspective and realize that you did everything you could to ensure a good race but there are just days that aren't your days.  I think every runner can think of at least one race where they went in with high expectations only to have those expectations dashed.  Give your body time to recover and then get back out there.