So I'm a Marathon Runner now

I ran a marathon.

If someone would have told me a year ago that I would run a marathon I'd have laughed at that person.

Maybe if it's not 26.2 miles then its not a real marathon but whatever. It was pretty long from my point of view.

I guess it started when I decided I to walk 10K steps every day. I've been doing that for close to 5 years now. I suppose its helping me be healthier. Moreso than your average schlum who doesn't walk at least. I got an email from Mario Lemiuex (or at least someone from his foundation) notifying me that there was going to be a Pittsburgh Penguins 6.6K Run and Family Walk. I guess it would be a good bucket list item to say that I ran a marathon in my life. If you figure 6.6K is about 4.1 miles and since I walk so much that should be doable. I can walk a mile in 16 minutes or so. As long as they give me enough time I could probably do that even just walking. I told Ale about it and she said she would do it too. I guess our first plan was to just walk it together. As we got closer I started to feel like I should do my best and that I should be able to run a good percentage of it without much training. On the way back to the parking lot from work I figured I could try to run. It's a mile. So I did for a week or two. I still couldn't make it the whole way without stopping but I know I was getting better. I don't think Ale did much training. It hurt her lower extremities.

On 2013/10/06 we woke up early and went to the arena parking lot. I didn't know what to expect exactly. We found tents set up to let them know we were there and we got a T-shirt and a chip we were to put in our shoe. They said there were about 4000 people there. After a while we were told to line up and Mario fired the starting gun.

I stayed with Ale for only a short time before she down shifted to walking. I continued to run. I wasn't going at a break neck speed but I was passing people. Soon I passed the first mile mark. I was still running that was amazing. I figured I could slow down now but then I argued with myself that I should go as far as I could so I tried. At the first water station at 1.5 miles I did finally have to slow up and catch my breath. After 2 miles from my ankles down went totally numb but I kept going. I tried to keep going and also grab a few pictures. I varied from walking to running for the last part of the race but eventually I ended up back at the arena and crossed the finish line.

Race Results

I was sweating like crazy and I got a horrible blister in the last mile but I made it. I grabbed another water and tried to find a place to wait to watch Ale finish. We got cool medals for our effort. Now I even started looking for other marathons. Crazy.