Left on Friday, November 20th for Arkansas.This was my 9th scheduled marathon in my 9th state. Picked up Amy around 10 a.m. and we were on our way. The drive down was nice until the Ozark Mountains. My satellite on my phone went off, so my directions that were being spoken to me by my phone quit. It was dark and we were within a half hour of being to our destination. I was driving the wrong way for about 20 minutes, then when I realized it and woke up Amy and we got the directions back it took us another hour to get to our hotel that we should have been at 45 minutes earlier.
Plus because the roads were winding around and around, up and down, Amy got sick and threw up and threw up for a while (outside the car thankfully). We did finally arrive and I got all my stuff layed out in our room for the race the next morning. We went to dinner and had some pasta. It was good.
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| A picture on the way there. |
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| A funny sign. Who names their town Licking? Seriously. |
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| Arkansas was really flat and beautiful. It was 60 degrees when we arrived. If only the nice weather would have continued the next day when it mattered. |
Imagine the absolute worst weather ever for a marathon. Like rain, freezing cold, high winds, and sleet. Then imagine running in that crap for 26 miles. It is not fun at all. It takes everything in you to complete a race like that. But I did it. I was tempted to be done at the half marathon mark, for you had to run right by the half marathon finish line to turn around for the marathon. I was tempted, but thought, "I drove all the way here to do a marathon in a new state and I will do just that."
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| Here I am in the car about an hour after I finished with my medal. I feel this was super hard to earn. My face was windburnt but I'm still smiling. State #9 done! |
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| Not my best time, but I didn't run the entire way either. There were periods of time where the wind was so harsh in our face that I would walk with my head down to shield the bad conditions. It seemed like the wind was always in our face the entire 26 miles and it would blow so hard it would push you backwards. Crazy awful conditions. |
A link that shows me finishing the marathon. Around 13 minutes into the video you can see me in the distance, all dressed in black. At 13:50 into the video I appear. Crying again like usual. Every marathon is so emotional for me to finish.
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| Amy being silly, wanting a picture with a sign. |
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| Both of us being silly, trying to take a picture of ourselves. We had to sit on the ground to get this picture. I could hardly stand up after. My legs were seizing up. |
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| Up close of the gorgeous medal |
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| A message in our elevator. I love it. |
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| Amy and I in our awesome race shirts the night after the race. |
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| Awesome people we met from Arkansas |
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| Amy drinking shots. |
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| On the way home in a gas station in Missouri somewhere I found this giant snickers bar. I didn't buy it, just thought about it. |
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