Something occurred to me earlier this week as I was on the treadmill. My running coach Marisa had sent me a beautiful e-mail, telling me she knew I was disappointed with my recent marathon time but she thought that in time I would come to see this race as a major accomplishment. That being able to ignore feelings of pain and wanting to stop showed me my true capabilities. 

I was thinking about her words as I ran (And her arms. Marisa has the most awesome sculpted arms. I covet them.) What I was thinking was that I wasn't quite sure if she was right because, frankly, not finishing the marathon was never an option. Literally. It would just

Dena & Marshall before the race

We'll start with the stats.

The weather at start time was 62 degrees F, 80% humidity, South wind mph.

There were 21 finishers in the Female 35-39 age group. I came in 7th in my age group and an overall gender finish of 44. 

There were 363 finishers in the Marathon Division. My overall finish place was 188.

At the halfway mark, my time was 2 hours and 5 seconds, for a 9:10 pace. At mile 19 my time was 2:57 for a 9:19 pace. At the finish my time was 4:24:10 for an overall pace of 10:05/mile (do the math to figure out how much I slowed down in the last 7 miles. This will become important shortly.)

So much for the numbers. Now for the emotional rehash.

Forget work, forget chores, forget anything in life that isn't directly marathon related. I spent most of last night dreaming about tomorrow's race (although hopefully running through office buildings and incorporating an unbelievably frustrating scavenger hunt won't be part of the real race) and though I will sit at my desk today, the chance of any real work getting done is minimal. Instead, I'm tracking weather reports and counting down the hours until I leave to pick up my marathon race packet at the expo.