Midsouth Marathon

Well, I did it again! On Saturday Nov 7th I ran in the Midsouth Championship Marathon in Wynne, Arkansas.

You're probably wondering where Wynne is...middle of nowhere Arkansas (about an hour west of Memphis). Yes, this was another small town marathon, but bigger than Davy Crockett by several hundred. But again, I needed a marathon on Saturday since we do our best to "Keep the Sabbath Day Holy." There was a marathon the very next day in Ft. Worth - would have been so much easier than a 7 hour drive, but sometimes the right thing isn't the easiest, right?

With Graydon being almost 18 months, I wasn't about to do that drive with him, so we declared it a girls weekend!! My mom and sister Tara drove with me! And after an eventful drive (almost running out of gas in the middle of nowhere) we found the charming little town of Wynne. This picture was at dinner the night before at a diner...I thought I could justify the chicken friend steak!

The race started at 8:00, which is late in race world, especially with a 7 hour drive back to home. So they did an "early start" at 7:00 for people walking the full and half and a few runners, so I joined in! I'm off to the starting line!

Ha! The starting line! So funny! I've run in big races (Cowtown with over 10,000 and Turkey Trot with 32,000!), but there really is something special about the small town ones. Since they usually are in the middle of nowhere, most of the runners are runners, so it's kind of fun. I'm a loner-runner anyway, so it was just like all my training anyway. There was a marathon-walker that I met at the Davy Crockett earlier this year!

Check out everyone starting their watches!

See ya at the finish line!

About mile 6 we turned down a country highway and I was surprised to be running right next to a huge cotton field! I had never seen cotton being harvested, and I thought it was beautiful! There was cotton floating across the road.

It was really pretty. It reminded me of the Davy Crockett Marathon, just that it was fall weather, where the Crockett was spring.

My mighty pit crew filling up my bottles! This was obviously on the first half because I was still smiling!

Here's where my story takes a turn...going into this I just wanted to be within 20 minutes of my first time (4:25:57). I didn't feel as "into it," so I was worried I wouldn't do as well and just didn't want to be so far behind my first time.

Well, I felt so good the first half and at the turning point I thought, "wow, I'm probably going to beat my time instead of going over! Woo hoo!"

Well, it was an out-and-back course, so when I turned around I realized why I had felt so good the first half...I had 30 mph winds at my back. But now I was running INTO it. The whole time I was running into this horrendous wind, I kept thinking, "How can I describe this to make people understand how awful this is? No one will believe that this is the worst wind I've run into!" It truly was awful. I forcibly had to push myself into the wind. Have you ever been at the beach and the wind is so strong it's whipping your hair up and sand is hitting your legs? There, you've got it now!

So that was struggle #1...and it was INTENSE! Then at mile marker 15 I stopped to get a drink and BAM, I have a shooting pain in my knee like I've never had before. I don't have the world's best knees and I have to wear braces anyway, but this was BAD. I couldn't run...I had to walk about 5 minutes before the pain lessened enough for me to hobble into a jog again. I stopped a few more times to take gel and drink when I realized it was getting worse.

What did this mean? I couldn't stop running...AT.ALL.OR.I.WOULD.DIE! Remember struggle #1? The wind? Well, I really wanted to stop and take a break because of it, but I knew that if I stopped again, I wouldn't be able to start again. So from mile 21 to 26.2, I didn't stop running AT ALL.

Well, at certain parts I was sobbing, tears running down my cheeks and all. And there's NO cell phone reception so I can't talk to my pit crew or my two biggest fans back at home. Misery!

When I crossed that finishline I just cried and used my mom and sister to limp over to an ambulance to get iced. It would have been dramatic, except for that it was so small town that the EMTs had to take off to go get someone who really needed help, so I had their attention for about 30 seconds!

So...I didn't beat my time. Boo Hoo! 4:27:09. Just over a minute more. Darn it...now I'm going to have to do another one. I was talking to some ladies who do this every year and the wind added about 20 minutes to their time. Ouch. The whole finish line was a buzz with curses on that horrible wind! But you can't take on Mother Earth.

This is OBVIOUSLY not my time...remember the early start? The minutes aren't even right.

Turns out that my knee had something to do with where my IT Band attaches to my knee and it's healing quite nicely, but I haven't run yet!

A huge surprise to me...I placed in my division! I was second in Females 25-29. Now, remember: small town, so it's not that big of a deal when there are only 10 people in your division to start with. But it was fun nevertheless.

Here's my award!

Thanks to my lovely sister for the pictures. And thanks to both my mom and sister for coming on the fun trip and being awesome cheerleaders and, literally, providing a shoulder to lean and cry on!

Hello hot mama! (p.s. She's available!)