Part I-26.2 Miles Completed-I finished!

Marathon day started at 4:30 am. I woke up early and got going. I had everything laid out and ready. I kissed Jeremy good bye and headed to Omaha by 5:15. The hour drive was peaceful. I arrived in Omaha ready to run. Amazingly, I found decent parking and walked to the starting area. It was still pretty dark and I had already put on my prescription sun glasses which made it even darker. Every body was surprisingly quiet. Bad news…the port-a-potty lines were 20 people deep. I had to improvise between two parked SUVs. I was hoping it just looked like I was stretching.

I walked far back in the line. Two old ladies were standing by me. They were from Missippi and had come to run. I mentioned this was my first marathon after finding out they had run several. They told me I would do great. We started. I went out at a slower than normal pace. But I was being passed, a lot. I was among about the last 50 people. It seemed weird as I was running about 11 minute miles by the Nike Plus. I was soon to find out the problem.

I noticed quite a lot of people passing me.  I started to get anxious but I just kept going, telling myself my goal was to finish-that was all-just finish.  Around mile 7 (according to the Nike Plus) we were still no where near the zoo which I had noted was about mile 10 on the course.  It seemed strange to me that we were so far into the race and yet I was not yet even headed to the zoo.  Why wasn’t I yet on the road to the zoo?  Where were the freakin’ animals.  Where was Mom who was meeting me at mile marker 10?  Wasn’t I close to ten miles?

As the Nike Plus told me I was at mile 9, I was finally on the stretch of the course that I knew took me to the zoo.  I just kept going feeling a little lost.  Nike Plus told me 12 miles, then I saw the course sign that said 10 mile marker.  My heart sank.  Not only was a two miles less than what I thought but if the Nike Plus was so off now, had it been off during my whole training?  Had I ever even run 18 miles?  No wonder everyone was passing me, I didn’t run 11-12 minute miles.  I realized, with a big lump in my throat that I had more than likely been undertraining the whole time.  I felt completely unprepared to run this marathon…