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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Mercedes Marathon 2009

The Mercedes Marathon was this weekend. I only ran the half since my training has been so crazy lately. The weather was gorgeous. A little chilly at first, but it warmed up pretty quickly. I was able to wear shorts and short sleeves. The course changed this year and was much better than last year. I ended up doing the whole thing by myself. Two of the girls that I trained with to do the full were ahead of me and one was behind me because she was walk/running the whole thing. I’m kind of glad now that I ran the whole way by myself. It gives me confidence that I can run a full by myself if I need to.

I originally said that I didn’t like that the course was a double loop. I’m still not a big fan, but it was so cool to see the winner race by on his way to the finish (at that point I was around mile 9). There was a huge caravan of police and news vehicles surrounding him. That was pretty cool.

There was the traditional beer and donut “water” stop near the end of the race. I didn’t take any. I did have a fig newton and part of an orange during the race. I don’t even like oranges. Orange juice yes, but I don’t eat oranges. Well I ate this one and it was the best orange I’ve ever had. I had another one when I finished.

My friend Andrea was there at the finish line to greet me when I got done even though she wasn’t having the best day. I’m so glad she was there, otherwise no one would have cheered for me. (Eric was home sick, he’s still sick). She got to see the results of not using Body Glide on my inner thighs. They were bloody. It was yummy. My time was 2:40:44. Last year’s time was 2:44:48 so I improved my time by 4 minutes! Woot.

After the race I went to the Expo and got some food. Then I went back to the finish line to wait on the marathoners. Meg came in first looking strong. She and Ira started the race together. Ira showed up about 20 minutes later I think. She had some stomach problems throughout the course but she made it to the end. Linsday came in right before the six hour time limit. Her whole family was there to see her finish. She’s 60 years old and ran her first marathon. That’s awesome. Her son ran the marathon too. His first ever. And his longest training run was 8-10 miles. He finished in 4 ½ hours. Loser. He didn’t think he would finish that soon so none of his family was there.

That night we met up with the group at Sweet Bones Alabama for dinner. We had the back room of the restaurant and the service was horrible! It took 30 minutes to get our drink order . Finally we just paid for our drinks and drive down the road to Johnny Rockets. I ate way too much. A milkshake, fries and a cheeseburger. Obviously I wasn’t vegan or vegetarian that night. I need to get back on the bandwagon. I’m thinking of doing 30 days vegan again. Just need to pick a date.

I still want to run a full marathon. Right now I'm thinking of the Country Music Marathon which is in Nashville on April 25th. Still not decided about it though.

Pictures will come in the next post when I get them off of my camera and steal some that Andrea took!

2 comments:

Eric said...

I ran the relay and couldn't help but take the beer off of 2nd Ave S. I grabbed it two years ago during the old course and still think it's the best beer I've ever tasted. Sadly, I was only on mile 3 of 6 so I did pay for it a little by not stopping and fully drinking it all, but I had to run! The gummybears were good also :) Good luck on your next race!

countrypeapie said...

You rock, Brandy! I wish I could say that I drank the beer at that last stop, but I just was not in a beer-drinkin' mood at that point.