done and done...

well, today was the nationwide columbus marathon and guess who ran in it and finished...andrew! whoa! 26.2 miles of running, walking, stumbling, stretching, and ultimately crossing the finish line. this was something i had been training for pretty consistently from about june until september 8. after that i guess you could say that i "started my race day taper..." taking five weeks off before a marathon makes the big day a pretty painful process. not to say that i would have been living the life of luxury and comfort had i continued my training until the proper time and day but the final 10 miles were probably much more strenuous without that last bit of training. c'est la vie. i had a pretty wonderful distraction :)

so i started the race this morning at 7:30am with about 12,000 of my closest running buddies. it was ca-razy. there was a stream of people walking to the starting line and about 10,000 of those runners jammed together itching for the starting gun. once the gun was fired, it took me about 12 minutes to cross the starting line and i was probably middle of the pack. like i said, there were A LOT of people. so we started the race through downtown columbus, then made our way through bexley where all the big houses are, then through old german village, and back through downtown to the finish line at the hockey arena. oh wait, that was just half-way for me...oy vey. the crowds were great and the spectators along the way were very encouraging. i wore my shirt that cheryl made for me last year that says "andrew rules" on the front. it was funny the first time some stranger from the sidelines yelled, "go andrew! you rule!" after the half-marathoners peeled off for their finish line the crowds were much smaller but the support that they dished out was still great. lots of "go andrew!" and "you rule!" and "almost done" (which yelling at mile 20 is really silly and borderline obnoxious...). so i kept going on past downtown, through the ohio state campus (where i got to see cheryl, annabel and colleen), through the neighborhoods of upper arlington and finally back across the river and down to the finish line (where i saw the girls again). that was a good feeling crossing the finish line. that last 10 miles or so was really tough. lots more walking than i really thought i would need to do. but you gotta do what you gotta do. and crossing that line made that very clear.

so that's the story of my very first ever marathon. maybe i'll do another one someday. probably not next year but after that we'll see. compared to today the half-marathon that i did last year was honestly, more fun. i can see doing a half next year or a 5k or something else. but right now i think that some stretching, sleeping and recovering is my priority. oh, and enjoying time with my favorite girls...and that sounds pretty nice.