by Elizabeth G

Created on: February 11, 2007   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

I ran my first marathon in May. What an amazing rush! It was by far one of the best and most memorable experiences of my life.

I woke up at around 5:00 and started the day with a chocolate chip bagel. I got dressed in my racing clothes, double and triple checked that I had everything I needed and headed out of the hotel with John. I was well equipped with two iPods clipped to my shorts (in case one died), three packs of Jelly Belly sports beans, and a spare pair of headphones for John to hold in case mine died. Music is so critical for me, that I can't bear to be without it even for a few minutes. The iPod Nano was set to go with a strategically arranged playlist of slower songs at the beginning and faster, energized songs at the end.

The marathon was 4 loops. The first loop was 7.3 miles and the others were 6.3 each. There were water stations at every mile, and the main crowd was gathered around the start/finish line. There were 600 runners, which is much smaller than any of the races I have ever run. My friend Jenny, who I had met through an online discussion forum, was also running the race. In fact, it was Jenny who found the race and suggested that I run it. We were both first-timers and had "virtually" trained together on our discussion forum. We didn't plan on running together because we needed to keep our own pace, and I wouldn't be able to talk to her with my iPod anyway.

The gun went off and I crossed the start line. I was wearing a stop watch so I could monitor my pace and time thorughout the race. During the first loop, everything was new. The thought of having to see these exact same things 3 more times though, was a bit daunting. My fingers were numb for the first two miles, but it got warmer during the loop and I threw my jacket to John when I passed him after the loop. The biggest challenge during the first loop was watching everyone pass me. I knew the pace I had to keep (slower in the beginning), and I knew I wanted to walk for one minute after each mile marker. Everyone was wizzing by me and I felt so slow. But I tried my best to ignore the other runners, and remind myself that I would probably be passing many of them at the end. Another challenge was the mile markers. They were staggered throughout the course, since the first lap made it so you'd reach different markers at various points (ie, you didn't see a sign for miles 5,12,and 19 as one sign... it was staggered by .2 miles or so). So the challenge was being on mile 4 and seeing signs

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