Marathon Weekend

I have been anticipating this weekend for a really long time. Anxiously (in a positive way), I had gone over every possibility, going so far as to say, "If it is less than 22 degrees, I am considering my registration a donation."

So, our adventure started on Friday as my parents, two sisters, brother, and sister-in-law all piled in my parents car (Moose was coming later that night, after work) and headed to the beach. We made a not-so-quick stop in Columbia to hit up Academy and Moe's. Afterward, we got into a heated discussion about politics and school boards (not even kidding), which was so invigorating that we missed our turn. However, because of this slight missed direction, we ended up here:

South of the Border

I had seen the signs my entire life, but never actually been to the place. It was crazy--sort of like a fake Mexican version of a fair. If you have no idea what I'm talking about google South of the Border, Myrtle Beach and you'll get a pretty good idea.

We headed directly to the runner's expo where we picked up our numbers and saw some cool animals! Also, the registration lady refused to give Morgan (my 11 year old sister) her ticket to the 21+ after party, but gave me 3. LOL She must've thought we were party animals! ha

We ate a quick pasta dinner, met Moose at the house and went to bed.

The next morning when we woke up, it was COLD and WET. Rain is literally my least favorite and when coupled with cold, makes for a cruddy run. This is how Morgan and I felt about it:

However, we felt really good about these super fun sweatshirts that mom made for our adoring fans! (ok, so spouses and family...)

We got out of the car and headed to the start line...and then decided we were super early and cold and wet, so we went back to the car. I admit to asking Moose on the way back to the car if he would think less of me if I climbed into the car and chose not to run. It was that yucky outside. However, the quick 15 minutes in the car boosted my confidence and I headed to the start line to find my people. The plan was for me to run with Micah and Ashley for the first 10 miles. Y'all, when I say there were 4,000 people running I'm not exaggerating. And when I say that 2,000 of them were trying to run the thing with the 2 hr split, I may only be exaggerating a little. I ended up finding a random girl named Melani to run with instead. She talked to me the whole way and pushed me to keep our 9:30 pace fairly consistently. Luckily, Micah and Ashley found each other and were able to run together!

We finished our race (Morgan and I) and settled in to take pictures with the elephant, check the awards board (Morgan won her age group......I did not!) and wait on Micah.

Finally, we found Micah at mile 25 and ran with him the last mile.

 This was a special moment and I was glad we were there. My last mile was incredibly difficult emotionally and I was grateful we were there for him so he didn't have to endure that yuckiness. However, he did say that his legs cramped every 15 steps from mile 20 on, so I guess it was fairly yucky in its own right.

We posed for some pictures with the creative signs Mackenzie had made each of us for our run. She was standing on Mile 4 holding them for us! Precious. 

Side note-she had one that said "This is YOUR moment" and felt the need to encourage literally every runner who passed by that it was THEIR moment...loudly....and with the poster. She swears people were encouraged!

Basically the rest of the day consisted of debating whether icy hot or just straight ice or a dip in the frigid ocean would help our sore muscles most. Then, we decided we were famished and had to have food. And of course, naps....

Our final times were: Morgan 1:47, Me 2:07, Micah (full) 4:23. I was so proud of our accomplishments through the whole experience. While we weren't quite as dedicated in our training as we probably should have been, we did it together and I'm so proud of that!