"Fully Trained"

Saturday was the final "long run" leading up to the marathon. Our trainers told us, if we completed the run, we would be "fully trained" to run the marathon. I have to say, the excitement of the previous week's half marathon was still in the air. This run would present all sorts of new challenges. This run would be 20 miles.

We met near the Alcoa/Maryville Greenway about 2 1/2 miles from the city line. Our objective was simple, we would run 5 miles, turn around, return 5 miles and repeat. It sounds so simple written down. At 7:15, we were off. It was a cool morning with a little bit of fog and the sun starting to rise as we left the starting line. The first couple of miles were good averaging under 10 minute miles. At the end of the first 5 miles, it took 48:29. Not a bad pace.

Returning back, we stopped about 1 1/4 miles in for a small pit stop and continued on. Getting back to the car at the end of 10 miles, I had to swap out my long sleeve shirt for a short sleeve and get some more water. At this point before heading back out, 10 miles down and 1:43:48 into the run.

Mentally, the toughest obstacle of the day was knowing that we were only 1/2 done and had to complete the circuit again. At 13 miles I was at 2:13:50 in, slightly faster than my half-marathon pace the week before.

By mile 15, fatigue was settling in. We were 2:39:13 into the run and had 5 miles to return back to the car. These were the toughest 5 miles I had traversed in quite a long time. I wish I could say i ran all of them, but the final 3 miles I had to walk a bit. By mile 17, we were over 3 hours into the run. I had to walk 1/4 of mile 18, 1/2 of mile 19 and 1/4 of mile 20.

Seeing the finish line after 3 and 1/2 hours was a remarkable feeling of accomplishment. Though my legs were ready to fall out underneath me, knowing the end was literally around the corner gave me enough push to end the race on a high note. Finally, 3:39:47 after starting, we crossed the end of the run.

It's was an amazing, yet scary, feeling knowing that in less than 3 weeks. I will run the distance again, tacking on the final 6.2 miles, to complete my first marathon!!


Here are some photos from finishing the half marathon. On top, I was waving to the camera operator in Neyland Stadium (hoping for good close-up :) ), and on the bottom... attempting to finish strong.