How did you spend 10-10-10?

I spent the day taking a wet, soggy 26.2 mile stroll around downtown Portland!

For some reason, last year when I completed the Portland Marathon, I felt this strange urge to put my body through all that pain and torture again... What was I thinking?? I had the best of intentions to improve on my 5:05:57 time from last year, so I registered for the race in March to give myself the motivation to train smarter and come in under 5 hours. Then student teaching kicked my butt a little harder than I thought it would, and I didn't pick a great training program or stick with one as I did last summer. These excuses and a laundry list of many more resulted in me being under-trained and very nervous to run on Sunday morning. But I got out there, had as much fun as you can while running 26.2 miles in a complete downpour, and I'm so thankful for the experience! Apparently, even with all the rain we have here in Portland, it has only rained for 2 previous marathons (out of 38)... lucky us!

My sister, Robyn, came to Portland to watch the kids so that Rick could be on the course throughout the run this year, which was wonderful! He met up with me around miles 1, 5, and 11, then he was there to cheer me on as I came up the hill to finish. I am so thankful to have an amazing sister who loves and cares for our kids when needed, and I am incredibly lucky to have such a supportive and loving husband!!

Here is a photo Rick snapped around mile 5... notice how wet my hair (even with a hat on) and the road is! When I say it was raining, I mean raining!

Me at the finish line... of course, it had stopped raining around mile 24, so it actually looks sunny out in this picture!

Another kick-butt finishers t-shirt that I will wear with pride!

I came home to this wonderful sign Robyn and the kids made for me!

I finished this year's run in 5:23:49... a lot slower than I did last year and much slower than my goal time, but I finished stronger than I did last year. I decided after the first 5 miles (when I realized I was at least 3 minutes behind my goal time with 21 miles still to go) and all the wetness that I wasn't going to be too hard on myself. I was running in the freakin' rain for goodness sake! The consensus around the start line was that pretty much all of us had avoided running by choice on such rainy days... maybe I won't be so afraid of it anymore! I actually took a picture of my feet when I took my soaking wet socks and shoes off, but I decided not to post it... lets just say they were very white and wrinkly, and I'm thankful they didn't get injured in any way!

As for my marathon future, I think I will be taking a couple years off to focus on improving my running speed/endurance in shorter distances. I would love to run several more 10k's and half marathons, then revisit the full marathon... maybe 2013?? See what my body can do then at 35! I know I have a sub-5 hour performance in me somewhere! :)