Mayors midnight sun Marathon

Mayors Midnight Sun Marathon

June 21st was the summer solstice and that morning I woke up to run a marathon. After we got into Anchorage we ran into a McDonald's to get Aaron some breakfast and for me to use the bathroom. I was a little nervous, but suddenly I was terrified as I noticed a table of other runners. They looked like runners with their Nike sweat resistant running clothes and perfectly molded calves. I think I had a panic attack as I listened to them discussing strategy and retying their hundred dollars shoes. Clearly I wasn't a real runner and I shouldn't be running with them! Heck, my strategy was to try and run the whole thing and my very modest goal was a 4:30, which were 10 min miles. I watched them head out into the pouring rain to run to the start line. I don't run to warm-up before running, it just means I have to run more! I've never felt more insecure about a race then when I watched those four lope off to the start line like gazelles. I literally leaned over to Aaron and told him I didn't want to run anymore. He laughed me off and walked me to the start line where I saw other people that looked like me. Like maybe they didn't run for a living and I felt better. I moved into line in the middle of the pack and waited for the countdown. I turned on my music and started jumping up and down in excitement instead of fear. My feet were soaked through about .2 miles into the race because of the unavoidable rain puddles, but I was accustomed to this from running in Girdwood. I was still a runner and I was running a marathon!

Right before hopping into line

And we are off

It was an interesting course because 11 miles were on a dirt road and another 2 a single track trail. The rest were on paved bike paths. I hit the halfway point at 2:00 which is my fastest half-marathon time so I knew I was doing great. And then I hit the wall. And I hit it early. I called Aaron around mile 18 and told him everything hurt. My feet, my calves, my thighs, my hips, my back, my arms, my neck. Everything! I hooked up with the girl above with five miles to go and she kept me going when I wanted to stop and walk. She had done six marathons before and was doing this on her vacation and talking to her about Alaska really helped keep my mind off the last few miles.

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They put two massive hills on mile 25! What were they thinking?! Just knowing the end was close but not being able to see it really was killing me.

Seeing Aaron near the end was really fun!

I finished a whooping 2 minutes before my goal time at 4:28:03! I placed 350th of 852 people. I was 109th in 396 women. I was 13th in my age division 20-29 of 39 girls. I'm hoping with the shorter age divisions in UT I will maybe be able to get a medal for my age division. So glad I have an awesome husband to support me!