26.Who knew I could run a marathon???

Seriously, if you would have told me even just one year ago that I would be able to run a marathon, I probably would have laughed in your face.




To be fair, it's not totally outlandish to think that I could run a marathon. I ran Cross-Country in High School and Middle School, and during college and post-college years I ran...let's say...intermittenly. But even with CC years considered, my longest run was MAYBE 5 miles at most.




Building on my post about the journey to a healthier self (yesterday), my drive to run a marathon started a few years ago. My mom, and her friend Lyn walked the Columbus Half Marathon. This was actually before Columbus had a half marathon, so they made their own course - triggered their chips at the start line and immediately cut over to the second half of the course. I'm sure their time was logged as a full marathon time, and will ever-go down in history as the fastest walking time. Nonetheless, this was the first marathon I had ever witnessed. I loved the energy. Everyone was excited, cheering, happy, proud and HEALTHY. I remember thinking to myself, "I can't imagine the joy you'd feel crossing that finish line..."

The next year, I walked it with my friend Katherine. We were totally untrained and technically unregistered! We didn't know you couldn't pick up your registration on race day (what is this, amateur hour??) We walked half, jogged half and then crashed for the remainder of the day on Vanessa's couch.


Fast-forward to Columbus Marathon 2008. My roomate, Abbey, ran the full and assigned her running friends to join her for stints of the race. I ended up running 7 miles with her and thought it was unreal the people cheering on the sidelines who thought that I was on mile 20 (when really I was only on 6!) As I watched her cross the finish-line I remember thinking...."Maybe I could do the half"



So in January of 2009, I found an article in Self Magazine called "You can run a half-marathon!" Well, Self Magazine...don't mind if I do... and so I began training, adding mileage on each week and marveling how each week was the "longest distance I'd ever run". I loved having plan and a goal to work towards. I ran my first half marathon in May 2009 and finished with a time of 2:03 and 9:13 pace. Literally the moment I crossed the finish line, I had the thought "I could have gone farther....maybe i'll try for the full in the fall"


What I found remarkable about training for the half is that I followed the plan and it worked. No problems, no injuries (knock on wood) just ran the race as anticipated. I couldn't help but think, if I follow the plan I have to be able to run the full...



On June 20th, I began my training plan. I'm proud to say that only only 2 occasions did I skip / cut short any of my training routine:
1. Late - August - traveling for work, early & late meetings skipped a 6 mile run during the week


2. September 9 - Ate pavement HARD at mile 12 of 18. Stopped there, went home bloody and crying, ran 18 the next weekend.


In September, I started running with my new running buddy, Laura. I know her because her husband and my fiance, Matt are friends from college. We started doing our final long runs together which made the training MUCH more enjoyable.


Ok, enough build-up. Marathon recap. I was nervous all week, and kept telling myself to be excited not nervous. There was nothing to be nervous about...just running 26 miles...


Sunday morning came, I got up, got dressed, covered every surface of my body in Body GLIDE and ate my usual pre-run breakfast. Whole wheat sandwich thin bun, peanut butter, sliced bananas and honey. I must admit, getting to eat this breakfast is a great reason to run 26 miles!



Abbey, her boyfriend Adam, Laura and I met at my house. Laura's husband RJ and Matt dropped us off at the starting line. Here's us before leaving my house:


From there, we went to the Athletic Club to stretch and go to the bathroom. It must have been nerves, but I swear I went to the bathroom no less than 4 times before we walked outside to the starting gates.





Oh, the starting gate mess. We got there a little late to actually get with a pace group, so we waited towards the back and crossed the starting line about 7 minutes after the gun went off. The first few miles flew by. Laura and I ran together and before we knew it we were all the way through Bexley. On our way back towards downtown around mile 7, I remember saying to Laura, "You know what? This feels really good! Only 19 more to to" The crazy part is, I really meant it!

In German Village we saw our guys, and I was so happy to see them. The picture below is me taking off my jacket to handoff to Matt.

At this point in the race (10 mile marker) it was still about 39 degrees, but I was getting warm enough that I didn't need my jacket. Little did I know that running through downtown would be totally shaded and I would IMMEDIATELY REGRET this decision to peel down layers.

Nonetheless, German Village buzzed by, and on the way up High Street we saw Matt and RJ again around Mile 12.... AND my friends Elizabeth and Andrew - which was such a surprise and probably why I look so happy in the picture below:

At this point, the half marathoners were instructed to go to the left to turn down Nationwide Blvd. for the finish. One of the volunteers was my friend Scott who is a fellow marathoner (ran Chicago this year) and also an ironman. No big deal. I ran my him and he gave me a big high-5 and I was feeling fresh as I was during mile 2.

Half-marathoners peel off to the left and then all of the suddent it felt like tumbleweeds went rolling through the route. Seriously, 75% of the runners were people doing the half, and the moment we passed their turn-off I said to Laura "...and then there were none....". Luckily I felt good while I was running miles 13-19, because if i wouldn't have felt so good there's no way I would have made it. This stretch was pretty bleak - no one out cheering, very few bands, the timers weren't working correctly, we had to run a random route through campus where we saw ZERO people (really, what did I expect from college students on a Sunday morning at 10am?) I started to pull ahead from Laura, and decided to capitalize on the momentum I was feeling despite the scenery

Then we got to mile 20 and hit the Upper Arlington neighborhood. People returned, we had cheering sections, but I hadn't seen anyone I knew since mile 12 and I was REALLY wishing I had my iPod. I did see this mean lady who works in my office building that is always yelling at people about parking violations. Of course she didn't cheer for me. Of course.

Mile 20 I had to stop for a very necessary bathroom break. I guess all the gu packets were starting to get to me, so I pulled off to a port-a-potty...and all I'll say is that there is NO worse feeling that using a port-a-potty after running 20 miles and then walking out of it to know you have to run 6 more.

By this point, I was at 3:40 and kept my mind occupied wondering if Abbey had finished yet and if she'd qualified for Boston. I kept running because I knew my family would be waiting for me soon, I didn't know where and I kept looking for them and not focusing on my feet and legs. I wanted to walk, but I knew that it would be so hard to get going again if I stopped, I just. kept. running.

Finally! Grandview! My friends and family! (Matt, Dad & Mom are below) You have no idea how important it is to have cheering section until you've run for 4-5 hours straight. Seeing them made me SO happy! You can see my expression below:Jackie joined me for about a half-mile as I jogged through Grandview. She was definitely the best dressed and best-looking runner on the course by far! I asked how Abbey was doing and Jackie told me that she didn't want to say anything, but that Abbey had hurt her knee and stopped at the half. I was so sad to hear this because I knew Abbey had trained so hard to work on her speed to get a time to qualify for Boston. But, I was happy that she knew not to push herself too hard and stopped when she did.

Through Grandview I was really ready to be done, but I didn't stop. I knew that it would be so painful to get going again. EVERYONE around me was walking and I used the momentum of passing people to keep going. Before I knew it I was on 5th Ave running towards Victorian Village. Even though there was 2-3 miles left, it still felt so far away. I kept saying to myself and repeating in my head...."You know these roads, you run these all the time, this is no different than any other training run....you didn't get up at 5am every workday this summer to run these exact roads to stop now....Neil Ave is only a half mile away...you know these roads...."

I'm convinced that having the course end through my neighborhood was my saving grace. As I ran down Neil Ave. I kept hoping that my friends would be waiting for me at 1st Ave. That morning I drove by 1st Ave and saw the sign that said "Mile 25" and said outloud "Wow. Mile 25. Barf."

Little did I know that I'd have these similing faces to cheer me on there:

Huge thanks to Kate, Natalie, Sonja, Jessie, Matt, Mitchell and the Schmidt's for coming to cheer me on at mile 25. I needed that more than you guys will ever know!

Not only was it so great to see them but Jessie and Kate surprised me with a sign that made me laugh really hard. I laughed about the sign for a good 5 minutes and before I knew it everyone around me was cheering - only a half mile to go - you can do this!

Here I am seeing my mile 25 cheering section:

Here's the sign that they made me (taken later that day) which says: "Amelia....the next Haley's Comet" We all really loved the movie The Hangover and for Jessie's bachelorette party we made shirts that said "Do you know when the next Haley's comet is?" (a line from the movie)
Right after I passed these guys and saw the sign for mile 26 I started to get all choked up. I don't know if it was the exhaustion or the joy, but I had this moment where I was thinking "I'm really doing this...this thing that I thought was impossible, I trained , I learned how to get my body adjusted to this inconceivable distance and now it's happening" After about 20 seconds I found that getting choked up made it hard to breathe, I told myself to lock-it-up and proceeded down to the finish: My final time was 4:39:56. I had hoped to be under 4:30, but I can't complain too much. I didn't walk once (besides the bathroom stop) and I did the best I knew how.

Here I am at the finish: And my loyal fans seeing me for the first time: The girls who trekked all over town to cheer me on - Adrienne, Vanessa & Jackie:
And my biggest fans ever, Mom, Matt and Daddy:

My running buddy, Laura (with the beautiful flowers our guys gave us!)

In summary, I know that looking at the pictures and seeing all the smiles it looks like no-big-deal. In a lot of ways, it felt like that. I did the training, I followed the schedule, I stayed injury-free (knock-on-wood)..and I'm convinced that if you can do those 3 things, anyone can run a marathon.

But what is really unique is the way that training for this marathon served as a symbol for so many things in my life that have changed in the past few years. The excitement of meeting the person you are supposed to spend the rest of your life with at the beginning of the race, the dulldrums of miles 13-19 that feel like work - buzzing along without much recognition. The desire to walk that represented this healthy journey I started a year ago, and the encouragement I NEEDED to have during thos last 6 miles. And then the finish. The perfect pinnacle of pride, pain, joy, love and support - all those things that have made life what is today and the reasons that I couldn't be happier with the way things have turned out.

Here's to hoping that this marathon of life continues to go with the same pace, support, learning and love as running my first marathon.

A journey to a healthier self

A little over 1 year ago I was shopping at the outlet mall and I had one of those moments. Anyone who has ever struggled with their weight / body image knows exactly the moment to which I'm referring. The "this must be a mistake, that nothing in this entire store fits me...." moment.

But alas, Ann Taylor Loft had not gone through some mean mis-sizing campaign against me. It was true, nothing in the store fit me. Or at least it didn't fit how I know that it should.

There is some saying that people don't change until "you're sick and tired of being sick and tired" and for me, that moment had come.

So I wallowed in my excuses for a few hours....I've been traveling a lot for work (do calories really count the same when you're in a different time zone?)....I don't have time to work out (but how do have time to go to dinner with my friends / boyfriend almost every night?) ....I don't know what i'm doing wrong...(how hard can it really be to learn?)

And when the excuses ended, I picked myself up (with some help from my mom) and embarked on what Mom and I called "ACDI" Amelia Can Do It. Little did I know the life-changing nature of this campaign...

I joined Weight Watchers, and I began tracking all my "Points". And miraculously, it worked! I started losing weight and had more engergy. Week-after-week my momentum grew, and I learned the first of many important healthy living lessons.

• There is always a healthier option.




• That option is often times more filling, but maybe not filled with cheese




• You'll feel better about yourself for choosing the right option.




• Sometimes you don't want the healthier option. That's OK. Just don't eat the whole pizza

My second step of ACDI was putting to use that gym membership that was sucking money from my bank account, but not from my waistline for the past few years. After a few weeks of getting back into a work-out routine, I signed up for the Biggest Loser competition at the gym. It was during this time that I learned another set of health living lessons:

• Working out can actually be fun




• While it's hard to get started, you always feel so much better after you do




• Having guidance and direction makes all the difference in the world (ie: spring for the trainer!)
  

And so the journey to finding a healthier version of myself began....

August 1, 2008 at Wesley & Katie's Wedding

August 29, 2009 at Mackenna & Eric's Wedding

I thought that this would be a good lead-in for the upcoming marathon post! (Not to give away the end of the story....but I think you know where this is going!)