26.2 Miles of Pain

Last year I braved my 1st big race by entering the Baltimore 1/2 Marathon. The race went so well, I thought "how much harder could it be to run the Full marathon"? Turns out the answer is - significantly harder!
Maren joined me in this endeavor so I would have a "training buddy". After tearing my MCL halfway through the training (throwing a Frisbee), I was concerned that my race was over. Though I will need to have the injury surgically repaired, the Orthopedic Specialist indicated running was fine as long as I could endure the pain. The pain turned out to be trying to catch up to the training schedule after taking 7 weeks completely off from running. One week I ran 10 miles for my long run and the next week ran 19 (ouch!).
The race was a bit warm, but we felt pretty good through the first 13 miles. We then took a bio break and tried to catch up to our pace group. Shortly after catching the group, my legs started to cramp. The rest of the race was a run-cramp-walk (mostly walk) excercise. Took a bit longer than planned, but at least I was feeling fine at the end. definitely at least one more marathon in the plans for me just to see if I can run the whole way. I do now have two really cool crab shaped medals - Cole is super envious...