26.2 miles of Elvis, George Bush Sr, and belly dancers

Let me begin this post by saying it's probably good i'm writing it three days post-marathon. The day of would have been titled "NEVER AGAIN", the day after would have been titled "OUCH - I CAN'T MOVE", and yesterday would have been titled "Look I can moove...oope...nope I can't". So, today I can move and i'm not sore anymore and I can get out of bed in the morning with a spring in my step instead of looking like I was 40 weeks pregnant again. Here is the play by play action of this post lovingly titled "26.2 miles of Elvis, George Bush Sr, and belly dancers". And, it's long. I don't want to forget anything. Feel free to skip to the pictures if you want.

The week prior to the marathon I was sick with sinus yuck and Mike got sick with the flu - really sick. So, in my not-so-great-wife mode, I was pretty upset he was sick and couldn't make the race. He was simply too weak and still had fevers so a drive to Houston and standing at the finish line waiting for me to cross is not really "taking it easy". After a couple nights of us not sleeping well and lots of tears, I picked up Allison (while still in tears) and we headed to Houston. We dropped Bella off at the grandparents house (awesome!) where Susy had an Italian cream cake for our birthday (double awesome). Yes, it was a day before the marathon but we had a little teeny bit. And, it was goooddd!

Then, Allison and I went to the Marathon Expo to pick up our packets and those cool timing chips you put on your shoes to tell you how great you are at running (I proved this wrong later). The Expo was full of the 40,000+ runners that would fill Houston streets the next day - and there was a certain synergy about the place too that made you think "Maybe i'm meant to be a marathoner" or "I want to be a great athlete" or "oh my gosh, is that Paula Radcliffe? Stand up straight - Tighten your core - Walk without pronation".

Then we checked in our hotel, which was right past the third ward in Houston. oops! I booked the hotel thinking it was in the Medical Center since the name of the hotel had "Medical Center" in it...well, it was kindof close but ended up being in the ghetto! The room was great though so we decided to stay and get back before dark. Off we went to find a great place for carb-loading. Allison took us to one of her favorite places, Cafe Express, where we had a fresh pasta-chicken-spinach dinner. It was yummy! All I could think of was Paula Dean's peanut butter dessert and pizza..."after tomorrow" I told myself. Then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the next day. We laid out all our clothes, positioned our timing chip on our shoe, and settled into bed...instead of sleeping we became two giggly (surprise, surprise) 29 year old twins who found everything possible hilarious! We finally went to sleep after reading some cooking magazines (that's why I wanted the Paula Dean peanut butter beautifulness) and watching the cooking channel.

The next morning started a little before 5 since we both woke up before the alarm. To try to take away the nerves, I did what i'm sure every marathoner does the morning of the run - read a cooking magazine and checked email.
Here are some of the morning essentials, modeled by Allison - deodorant (amen to this!) and anti-chafe glide (amen again!).
Some goodies for the road, modeled by Allison.
And, to try to take away the nerves again...we watched Little House on the Prairie.

We did our final morning stretches and were off. Notice the outfits! We looked the Jamaican bobsled team twins - we may or may not have sung that a couple of times. Emily first, Allison second.


Coming up to the start line was a neat moment. They were lining up the wheelchair contenders who, by the way, do the marathon quicker than any of the runners. Then, the elites lined up. Allison and I went to get a glimpse of the "elites" - they were olympic contenders, world record holders, and all around extremely fast-fit people. I tried to warm up like they did - it didn't work.

We then shuffled back to our starting line. Remember there are 40,000+ people so we had to find the others in our, uh hem, pacing group of 2.5 hours. ha! Just kidding. More like 4.5 hours. This part was fun with the energy of everyone else and the loud gun that went off and thousands of people shuffling without knocking one another over - brilliant.

The first 13 miles were great! We had a fabulous pace, an easy stride, music, lots of screaming fans...we had our names on our shirts but it took us a while to realize that's why everyone was screaming "good job, Allison" and "way to go, Emily". We thought we had loads of twin fans! We drank water at every stop and then kept going. Throughout the route we saw Elvis impersonators (about 4 of them...what was with that?) and kiddos with signs of "go mommy go". I didn't cry but I sure thought I was going to lose it when I saw a mom see her kids and run over to them. Then there was a college age girl behind us who saw her dad on the sidelines. She yelled "dad" in semi-exhaustion and he went running to her to hug her...yep, about lost it then.

"Awww, twins" "Are y'all twins?" "Look twins, that's so cute" "Wait a minute...y'all look the same" "Y'all are so cute together" - If I had a nickel every time someone commented on us being twins (the Jamaican bobsled team twins, nonetheless) I would be rich!

Then mile 14 got a.little.harder. But, we were ok. Just keep going. One step in front of the other. You got this. You got this. Mile 15, 16, 17, and 18 - harder and we start hurting. I was really worried about my stomach upsets that i've had on my training runs. Thankfully, I had one nervous moment at mile 3 and then it was semi-ok after that. I stayed nervous about this throughout the entire race. Ok, back to the story.

Mile 19 was a come-to-Jesus moment. "Why in the world am I doing this?". Just when you need motivation, a man handing out oranges said "Emily, look ahead. It's George Bush". At this point I was not in a laughy mood so I thought, "whatever. The make-you-laugh-at-the-Bush-impersonator-tactic is not working". Sure enough, I passed someone sitting in a chair with a cane and it was the George Bush Sr. What? So, what did we do? We ran past him and spent the next mile trying to figure out if it was really him and then wished we would have taken a picture. "Hello Mr. President. We're the Jamaican bobsled twins and we'd like to take a picture with you." Oh well. We saw him.

Mile 20 is supposedly the "wall". Oh, y'all it certainly was! I think this is where Allison said, "human bodies are not supposed to be able to do marathons" and I think I said "uh huh". We were h.u.r.t.i.n.g! Our legs, my back, our feet. We would run and then have to stop and then run and have to stop. I would jog because it felt better and Allison would walk fast at my jog pace - so, I was probably jog-shuffling. During the initial miles we had minute-miles of 10 and 11 - now we were clearly in the 12's and the pacer for the 5:45 was in front of us. That was humbling! The next 6.2 miles were spent just hoping to see the mile markers. It was also a time where you make "friends".

At the beginning of the race, you have "those" people - you know, the ones that hit you on the arm so they can pass you and are all about business. We didn't really make friends with them because, well, 1) they wouldn't have talked to us if we tried, and 2) they passed us at mile 2. So, when we hit mile 20 everyone in our little group was struggling just like us. Some were sick to their stomachs and most, if not all of us, were limping in some sort of way. I used to think that you could only be a marathoner if you made a great time of 4:30 or less. However, at this point I realized we were all marathoners for just finishing. There were senior citizens running with us (humbling again), people our age, mothers, friends...and all of us were just trying to finish. I remember thinking, "If I can make it to mile 22 it will be ok". Then, 23 and 24 and 25 were really hard and achy. Allison and I said the day before we would have a heart-to-heart during the marathon - the talks with your best friend that involve what you want to do with your life and how you want to solve the worlds problems. Needless to say, we were not talking much at this point except encouraging one another along and talking about our aches and pains.

I think at mile 24 or 25 they had belly dancers...uhm, were they motivation? After laughing/hurting because we laughed/laughing we kept going.

We decided to walk and save our last bit of energy to run past the finish line. We finally turned the corner and saw the big bunch of balloons at the finish line. At the beginning of the race, I actually thought I would cry at this point but I don't think I had anything left in me except wanting to finish! We started running and looked for Brad, Susy, Tommy and sweet Bella. We saw Brad about 10 yards until the finish line and it was wonderful to see him! Then we passed the finish line! The finish line video is at the end of the post. Marathoners victorious! Emily on right, Allison on left.Then we saw the grandparents and Bella. I called Mike and told him I would never do this again.

Here's Bella waiting and waiting for her mom and aunt to finish...

We then went to get our medals and sit down! I walked a little bit but my back was in pain! So, I sat down.

After getting our medals and a great shower, I headed home with Bella. In hindsight, the marathon was much harder than anticipated. Training, or lack thereof in my case, needed to be a little better - but given my thoughts on that (see previous post) - I did ok. Also, I finished! I finished! I finished! 14.5 months post baby and all! We did it! It was great to do it with Allison. Although we didn't have a heart-to-heart we accomplished this together all the way, side by side, Jamaican bobsled style and all. Now, three days later, I'm so glad I did it. Will I do it again? I'll save that for another post. For now, I ran for a medal that looks pretty cute on my training buddy!