Well I finished....

the 2008 Denver Marathon on October 19th, 2008. It wasn't my best marathon ever, but since I've only run 2 I guess it's all relative. I rode down to the marathon with my friend Stacey and her husband. She was running her first marathon. I was really nervous of course. You just never know what will happen on race day. It was cool at the start, but good running weather. I started off really good. You always start out feeling good, but that would change. I went out way too fast for the first few miles and that would come back to haunt me at the end. To make a long story short..I had to stop and go to the bathroom 3 times. There is no other way to put this, but I had the runner's trots. It was not fun. I think the 2nd time I was in the lovely port a potty like 5 minutes. I knew after the 2nd bathroom stop I wasn't going to have a better race than San Diego in 2005. I didn't really give up, but I was defeated. My 26.2 mile race would take 4 hours and 6 minutes. I was definitely disappointed. I wanted to do better than my 3 hour and 54 min race in San Diego. You train for 4 long months and to come up short sucks the big one. Oh well, much to my mom's disappointment, I will just have to run another marathon to try and do better. I plan on running a marathon next summer sometime.

Here I come. I was so excited the first time I saw Pete and Hudson.
Just a little bit closer.

I was still smiling at this point. So it was early in the marathon.
I stopped and gave a Hudson a kiss on the forehead. I loved seeing him out on the course.

Pete wasn't looking for me in all the runners. He was looking for the girl running a marathon in a bikini top. Maybe I should try that next time.

Hudson's famous say "cheese" face.

What a long day for Hudson. He was such a good sport. He was good fan. He loved ringing the cow bell. He kept saying good marathon mommy.

Near the finish.

Here is my cheering section. You can see the awesome flag Pete made. I love it because it is so easy to spot in the crowd when I'm running. Dave, Gladys, Anika, Elisha, Foster, Jodie, Pete and Hudson were all there to cheer me on. Thank you all for coming. I appreciate it. It's so great to see familiar faces in the crowd cheering you on when your running a marathon.

So close to the finish. When I see the finish line it is the best feeling in the world. You know your long journey is almost over. What a relief.

This was right near the finish. I was so mad and just wanted to finish at this point. My brother-in-law Dave took this picture. He told me afterward he never saw such a look of determination. I told him it wasn't determination, just disappointment and anger.

My friend Stacie and I after the marathon. I wasn't too keen on pictures afterward so this is about the only one Pete got. :)