Nashville Country Music Marathon 2009

So Kelly said to me around the end of February that he was going to run a marathon with a group from his class in Nashville the end of April. I said that was awesome and that I knew he would do great, not knowing that in less than a week I would be deciding that I was going to run in the same race...let's first just let everyone know that I was going to run the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) not the full (26.2 miles for those of you who are like me and don't want to do the math!).  So there it began.  Every Saturday we would meet our running group between 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning and do our training runs.  My first training run was a 7 miler. I was very skeptical that I could even do it (at this point it was around 5 weeks after my surgery), but to my happy surprise it turned out awesome!  I have to give much credit to the best running partners a girls could have...Charissa and Heather!  They are the best!  We chatted, ran and before I knew it I had ran 7 miles! Yay!

So here we are on April 25, 2009 at about 6:30 in the morning, post race.

And here is my very handsome, very sweet, very fast husband before the race.  He is just about ready to leave us slow girls to get in his corral number 1 (very cool, by the way because that means he is fast and gets to start first so us slow people are not in the way!)

And this is my view as the girls and I are in corral #23! The race began at 7:00 when corral #1 people (i.e. Kelly!) were able to start. We in corral #23 started around 7:45. It was fun waiting though, the excitement of being in the crowd of people was very entertaining.

See....

And I even found fun things to do while waiting like taking pictures of the crowd of feet! Cool, right?!

Here I am running at the beginning, still with a smile on my face!  All in all the race was pretty awesome!  I have to admit I really stopped smiling around mile 9+.  After that each mile was longer than the next. But...

Here it is... THE FINISH LINE!!!! Yay!!!! Happy day!!!! I did it and it was soooo amazing!!! Here I come bananas, water, muffins, cookies.....

Here I am covered in dried salty sweat(gross, I know, but very satisfying!), and very happy and yes, very sore!  Stairs and getting down on toilet seats (sorry if that is to much info!) were a problem for a few days!

Here is that fast, handsome, awesome, and extremely salty husband of mine!  He finished the full marathon in 3 hours 28 minutes, a super achievement and it was his first!  I know, know, I am perhaps the luckiest woman ever to be married to this man...he has all these qualities that are so amazing, but the best ones know one even knows about...oh, but I digress...:)

NICE, right?!

Here is the gang... Tom and Charissa Coate, US, and Heather Baldwin.  They are the best!

And here is one of us girls...we all hung in there together, porta-potties, water breaks, the hot sun beating down on us, the hills, and all...every single 13 miles and even that last .1, we did it together!  Thanks Charissa and Heather!!!!!

Oh, I guess I should mention my time...I actually didn't care so much about it, I was just so happy to have finished, but it was 2 hours, 38 minutes.  And I can say that I would do it again! Actually we are, Kelly and I are heading to Ohio in September to do the Air Force Marathon! (Me the half, I really do not aspire to do the full! I have my limits!)