I have never had a desire to run a full marathon... until about 7 months ago. I ran a half marathon in 2004 and felt like that was plenty far for anyone to run. Since then I've had a knee surgery and 3 kids so really never planned to do more than that. In March at our
Hansen Family Reunion I was talking with my brother and sister-in law about the marathon they were training for in May. I was planning on doing the Hartford half marathon, but this got me excited to do more. I kept thinking about it and decided to train for the full and if anything happened I could always do the half. Training went really well and I was surprised at how well my body handled the intensity of the long runs. I've learned that if you put the miles in, you can go the distance. It also helps to have some good music like The Eye of the Tiger to keep you pushing. Since we traveled in September I was able to run on part of the capitol trail in VA and then got to train in the Catskill mountains. Now those are some real hills!
This was also a personal goal because of the difficulty of recovering from a twin pregnancy. Because I was so big I have muscle separation which, in my case, is permanent without surgery to correct it. It has been difficult to avoid looking pregnant when my tummy makes it look like I am. I decided that this was a great goal for many reasons, one being to do all I could to look 'normal' again. My stomach still bulges, not as much, but I am not bothered when people ask when I'm due. I feel great and worked hard to accomplish my goal.
The race was great and there were about 8,000 runners for the full and half marathons combined. The weather was great, cool and breezy. I found someone that was running a good pace, similar to mine and we stuck together from about mile 3 to 22. Then Mark met up with me and we ran the rest together. I did better than I had predicted finishing in 4 hours and 17 minutes. I don't know if I'll do a full marathon again, but it was quite the experience.
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| The starting line... we're off |
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| This is at Bushnell Park downtown Hartford where we finished. |
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| Happy, but barely able to walk! |
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| My inspiration and personal coach |
6 comments:
Yahoo!!!:) Way to go Sarah!!!:) I am soooo impressed!...Yet not too amazed that you took the challenge. That is just the person you are! Way to go!
Congratulations Sarah!! That is Awesome!!
Congrats Sarah! I am also very impressed!!
A very big congratulations! There are very few feelings like it! Way to go, and never say never. :)
Wow! That's so impressive! I have so much respect for anyone who can run a marathon. I did a half not too long ago and, like you, think it's plenty far for anyone to run. I can't imagine running that far and then turning around and running it again! And your time was great!
Congratulations! That's a big accomplishment that I don't plan on doing. You look great and your girls are adorable!
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