Congratulations to Kay!

Long report:  Saturday after 8 hours of traveling we arrived at Spokane International Airport , picked up our rental car and drove the 40 miles to Coeur d’Alene , Idaho . That is such a beautiful area. I was in awe. I traveled with a new marathon friend, Deb, from Gainesville , FL. I’d met Deb last October at the Disney Tower of Terror race. We checked into our hotel quickly, and then drove the 2 miles to packet pickup. That took us about 5 minutes, only because we switched our entries to the early start. We then hopped on a trolley for a tour of the race course. We started to get concerned because there were so many turns and twists on the course, but they assured us that it would be very well marked and we wouldn’t get lost. We were ready for dinner by this time. It was 3:00 Idaho time, but 6:00 by our stomachs, so we went to a really good Italian restaurant and had the best lasagna that I’ve ever eaten. After that we headed back to the room, laid out our race stuff and had an early night.

Race morning, we were up at 3:45, and out the door at 4:45. Our early start was at 5:30. It was already light out, so we didn’t have to worry about running in the dark. It was a little cool, but just about perfect for a marathon. I wore long sleeves, but later I wished I’d worn my short sleeves. We sat in the car for about 15 minutes to stay warm, then used the “honey pots”, and went over to the start line. There were quite a few early starters, but most of them were doing the half marathon. (I don’t know why the half marathoners felt the need to start early as they had the whole marathon time to finish.) We chatted with a few people, and Deb found a buddy to stay with since she was planning on walking most of it.

I walked with them the first 5 minutes or so to warm up a little before starting to run. I didn’t think I’d do well, as my training since Bataan the end of March has been lousy as I’d been consumed by work since then. I started running very easy, doing 5 min runs/ 1 min walks. My legs felt heavy and slow. They were right; I had no problem following the course at all. The signs were great, and the busier areas had police and volunteers manning them. The course just had some gentle hills until around mile 10 I think. Then the hills started. Some of them were pretty long, and I ended up walking up most of them. We got up the top of the first one, then we got to do down. It was a very easy run down; not too steep that we had to worry about losing control. Then there was another hill. This one was over a mile long, I think. I ran as I could, then we got to run down again. However, after reaching the halfway point we turned around and had to go the reverse direction on the hills. It seemed a little easier going back. Going down the last hill I was having a great time. I felt like I was flying, and I had a big grin on my face. It was such fun! Around this time, I got to thinking, that, hey, my time wasn’t too bad so far. Could I do it? Could I PR? I didn’t think so, but what the heck, I was feeling pretty good, so I picked up the pace just a little and started paying more attention to my mile splits. As I got closer, I kept thinking, maybe I could do it.  Around mile 23, I met up with a fast runner who was struggling and down to my pace at this time. He was doing his first marathon. (He ended up finishing around 3:25.)  He said to me, What are we about 3 hours?  I said, well you are, but I’d start early. We ran together for about a mile and a half, with me struggling a little to keep his pace. We came to a small hill, and I stopped to walk up it. He said come on you need to keep going. It was great to have him encouraging me. I sent him on and told him to go for it! I struggled to keep him in my sights that last mile and a half, but finally lost sight of him. I thought Oh My Gosh, am I really going to do it? I could if I kept pushing that last mile. I couldn’t slow down. I didn’t! I was so thrilled when I crossed the line and looked at my watch.  5:06:08!!!  Woohoo.  I was sure I’d PR’d, but still had some doubts. I thought my PR was 5:08 something, but didn’t know for sure. As soon as I got to the car, and my phone, I called my hubby to check my PR. Sure enough! I’d done it.  Woohooo!!!!!

I hung around the finish line cheering others in while waiting for Deb and her new buddies to finish. They finished just under 7 hours, looking great. We went back to the hotel, cleaned up and had the best Mexican meal. Then we drove around the area a little to take some pictures. I can’t tell you how beautiful the area is. After that we went and had dessert, then back to the room for an early night. We arrived back in Orlando by 11:30 last night.

The End!

Happy running,

Kay