Marathon: We finished!

We did it! We finished! It's over! We could not be happier about that third part!!!

The beginning of the marathon was amazing. SO MANY fans were there cheering all of the runners on. And running through downtown and Lincoln Park was especially beautiful. They sure are the best areas of the city, in my opinion. We didn't even notice the miles flying by.

At about mile 7, my lungs started to cramp up, or at least that's what it felt like. I could only breathe into the top part of my lungs; the bottom part felt like it was rejecting the air. We had to stop while I took my inhaler, and then walk.

After I caught my breath again, we ran. At mile 11, the same thing happened, and then we started back up with the running. Then every two miles, I lost my breath. At about the 15, right after we saw Megan, Kelly and Peter at the best possible time, Bill's legs started cramping up, and continued to do so each time we re-started running. We had trained all year to run the whole time, without walking, and so his body was very confused about why we kept starting again after walking. Usually when we walk, it's because we've finished.

The last 8 miles were especially hard, as I started losing my breath every mile, and so Bill's legs cramped up every mile as well. The marathon was by far the worst run we'd had, which is frustrating, but makes the accomplishment of crossing the finish line feel all the more significant. I was uncontrollably crying when we finally ran across that finish line; I was so so relieved for it to finally be over, and to have finished. We immediately decided never to do it again, but already today we are thinking that we want another shot, to have a good marathon experience. We will see...

Here are some pictures Kelly, Megan, and Peter took! If we can, I'll post the professional pictures too when they're out. THANK YOU EVERYONE for your love and support throughout the marathon, especially this week!

Stretching while we talked to Meg, Kel, and Peter. SO GLAD THEY WERE THERE!!!

15 mile mark. Run run run

Marathon: The Final Countdown!

The marathon is 6 short sweet days away! We can't wait to run it! It's been a great, hard, fun, not fun, rewarding experience, and we're really looking forward to finishing it and accomplishing the goal. Bill has been training really well all the way through, and has been the best training partner I can imagine. I'm so glad we've been able to do this together. The end has been a little more stressful, as I've been a bit sick...

I just got back from the doctor, who cleared me to go run. I have had a sinus infection that turned into bronchitis, and it morphed into this new thing I've never heard of called Reactive Airways Disease (it's not a disease - sounds scarier than it really is). That basically means that when you're sick, you could have a less-scary version of an asthma attack, where your breathing passages suddenly swell up. This happened to me on our last long run, two weeks ago, and was a bit terrifying, especially since we didn't know what was going on and it came seemingly out of the blue. Luckily, I have a great doctor who helped me quickly get back on track. So, MARATHON HERE WE COME! Now, let's work on the weather... it's supposed to be 30's and raining... yuck!