The marathon ended up a bit like birth or I should say like a birth plan. Probably best not to have one! Shad and I had planned to run together. It never crossed my mind that we might get separated among the 20K runners. I stood in a sea of runners and could not turn – the fact that I could not turn has little to do with my “protrusion injury” but I’ll get to that in a bit. Back to my “birth plan” for the marathon. The plan was, run with Shad. Shad is sherpa. Shad has snacks in his backpack if I want them and was there to tell me how great I was doing every step of the way. Ummm… I couldn’t turn. I couldn’t see him. We got separated. Who knew? Mile 1 passed. I looked and looked. Mile 2 passed… still looking. Mile 3… no Shad… 4…5…6… I started asking people around me and on the sides of the streets to look for him… mile 7… mile 8…. FINALLY he came up behind me. I was glad to see him and we ran together for the remaining 18 miles. 

There were aid stations along the way. At each aid station I grabbed the popsicle stick with vaseline on it. Shad and I applied it everywhere I could possibly at risk of chaffing. On about the third stick we were both surprised to find when I lifted my shirt blood… a good amount of it too. Where you are wondering??? It was on my muffin top!!!! UGH… to the pain as Inigo Montoya would say. For the next mile I assessed in my mind how that could possibly happen. I came up with the fact that my stomach must protrude beyond my breasts – at least on the left side. Shad, on the other hand, gave me a bit more credit. He said it was the pin from my number rubbing on my skin. Hmmmm, I prefer to make this a humorous experience and say it was my muffin top all the way.

All in all the day was good. I crossed the finish line in just over 5 hours. Again, not according to plan, but I was happy enough because I did it. 

Looking forward to signing up again next year.