Jeremy's run

     Okay, when we last left off Tonya just finished the race.  Now here is my side of the run.

After Tonya and I split up in the start corral I made my way up to the group that was going to be running my goal pace.  It wasn't easy.  When I finally got there I had to wait shoulder to shoulder with other excited runners.  I could barely see the starting line from where I was, but when they started the race I got chills from knowing I was about to embark on a new life.  I would no longer be training for a marathon, I would be a marathoner.  Like Tonya, the first mile went really quick.  I couldn't believe how easy it was feeling through the first few miles.  I think it had to do with the rush of excitement from the surrounding runners and spectators.  I was frightened around mile 7 or 8 by my boss.  He was yelling out support to the passing runners as they went by and when I ran by him I didn't notice him until he started screaming my name and jumping up and down.  This surprised me and made me jump.  I twisted around, gave him a wave and continued on.  It was getting warm out and around mile 11 and I noticed I wasn't sweating anymore and it concerned me.  I figured I wasn't staying hydrated and realized I needed to drink more water.  The one thing I was doing well was staying on pace.  My pace through 15 miles was right on my goal pace.  When I passed the halfway point I had knocked off about 20 minutes from my previous half marathon time, this got me excited about knocking out this marathon in no time, but then I realized, I still had 2 1/2 hours to run.  

Well at about mile 16 I hit the wall.  The heat was getting up there and I was starting to feel soreness in my feet.  I started to question whether or not I would be able to finish and if running a marathon was a smart idea.  I figured to be able to make it to the finish I would walk through the water stops and then run in between them.  This helped my attitude and my energy.  I had so many things running through my head during the last few miles trying to take my mind off of the pain.  A guy I work with who donated to our charity had told me to think of him every time my left foot hit the ground, I did a few times after mile 16, and it helped.  I hit mile 20 and felt a surge of energy hoping it would carry me through to the finish.  It didn't.  I still was struggling putting one foot in front of the other one, but the great supporters at the aid stations and standing along the race course helped to keep me going.  Mile 24 came and went and I was having to take more frequent walk breaks and was feeling defeated.  But I knew I needed to push on, I was only 2 miles away from my goal.  My time had faltered and now I was hoping to finish in 5 hours.  Hitting mile 25's water stop I told myself to buck up and start running.  I had told myself earlier that no matter what, I was going to run the last mile.  So I dug down deep for some inner support and started pounding the pavement.  I could feel the finish line getting closer and my legs seemed to have a new surge of energy.  I began running at a pace that I didn't know I had the energy for.  I was passing people left and right listening to the crowds cheers of encouragement.  I turned the second to last corner and headed up the small hill that would challenge my ending pace.  It didn't slow me down, it actually felt like I started running even faster.  The crowd was cheering loudly as I made the final turn to run the final 0.2 miles of the race.  I could feel my legs struggling to keep the pace, but I knew I could do it, I pushed myself that final stretch and when I reached the finish I raised my arms in triumph.  As I finished I got a lump in my throat from the emotions I was going through.  I felt a sense of pride for what I just did and I almost started to cry, I think it has a lot to do with the stress you put yourself through running 26.2 miles.  After making it through the finish corral and getting my medal, I slowly walked through the crowds taking everything in.  As I waited for Tonya to finish I was looking back over my experience of the run and couldn't believe I had just ran a marathon.  I still can't believe I ran one, but I can say this, I am going to run another one.  It didn't deter my attitude towards running and I know that I have at least one more marathon in me.  Anyways I am glad I did it and happy that I finished and if there is any one who wants to run next years marathon with me give me a call and we can start training.  

We finished, Tonya's tale of the marathon

We did it. Tonya and I finished the marathon and have finally starting walking without pain again. It was rough, I won't lie. The weather did not cooperate at all and it took both of us longer than we were hoping, but we finished. The heat got up to about 80 degrees and it was sunny, so towards the end of the race the heat was getting unbearable. Luckily they had plenty of water stops along the route to help keep the runners hydrated. I completed the marathon in 5 hours, a half hour longer than I wanted to, but I feel great for finishing. Tonya finished in 5 hours and 58 minutes, and was equally happy for finishing.

Heading to the start, we were getting nervous and excited. When the race finally started it was less than spectacular because it took us at least 17 minutes to get to the start. It was tough at the beginning because it was so crowded. As we continued on it got a little easier. Tonya and I actually got separated in the crowd and did not run the race together. Tonya has always thought the first mile was the most difficult because she is trying to find her stride and get into a tempo. It didn't seem to be hard and before she knew it, she was hitting the 1st mile marker. When she hit the 1st mile she was surprised at how easy it felt and thought only 25.2 miles to go. She was having to run without her trusty running companion, her ipod, for the first time and she thought it would be hard but there was so much excitement with all the runners and spectators. She is glad she didn't use it, she felt she was able to take everything a little better. Then came mile 7. She hit the wall and needed to call her friend Kate. She needed a shot of support and Katie was just what she needed. When Katie answered the phone, Tonya was sobbing and said she wanted to quit. Katie told Tonya she couldn't quit because she wasn't a quiter. As soon as she got off the phone with her she took off running with a smile on her face. She was texting with her friend Diane who told her she was just past mile marker 11. Knowing she was there helped Tonya keep going. She passed mile marker 11 and started looking for Diane on the west side of the street where she said she would be. All of sudden Tonya saw a crazy lady jumping up and down on the side of the street yelling her name. She threw her arms up and smiled. Tonya ran up and hugged her. Tonya was trying to tell her something and Diane told her, "don't stop to talk to me, keep going," and she started yelling "GO, GO, GO!" She kept going and was getting tired again so she was very happy to see the 13.1 miles, which is half way. Tonya took two minutes to walk and then began running again. For mile 16 she did a run/walk. Around mile 17 Tonya met a girl named Stephanie who had lost her running partners. They started running together. Stephanie was very encouraging for Tonya when things started getting rough again. Basically they decided to run from water stop to water stop. There were water stops every mile. So they passed mile marker 18 and just a little further was the water stop. They grabbed a gatorade and walked to the water and grabbed a water. They walked and drank and tried to keep moving while they took water. They were trying to stay hydrated because of the heat that had been beating down on them since mile 12. As soon as they finished with their water they were off and running to the next water stop. This was working great for them. Unfortunately, in mile 23 Tonya stepped on some uneven pavement and she was so tired it was all she could do to catch herself, but twisted her ankle. Tonya jumped off the course to stretch her ankle and to make sure it was alright. Stephanie stopped with Tonya to make sure she was okay. Tonya was very happy running with Stephanie because she was very encouraging and a nurse so Tonya knew she would be alright if anything happened. Tonya was fine and they continued on. She was getting tired and whiny, but Stephanie kept encouraging her. At mile 25 Stephanie said, "we have to finish this. We didn't come all this way to give up with only 1.2 miles to go. We can run to the end." Then they saw the 1 mile left marker and Tonya wanted to cry. She couldn't make her legs cooperate. She just tried to keep up with Stephanie. She took a second to walk and waved Stephanie on to go ahead. She didn't want to hold her back. Tonya was coming up to Michigan Ave. and knew she only had two turns left. So she walked to the corner and took off because she could see the 26 mile marker and knew she only had to go 0.2 miles beyond that to the finish line. She started running and swearing wondering why they would make the end uphill. Tonya started crying and then heard someone calling her name. She looked up and saw her Mom and Sister standing just before the turn to the finish line. She ran over to them sobbing. She hugged them for a second and then ran for the finish line. Tonya didn't know they were coming and was so happy to see them at the end. As she rounded the corner onto Columbus and towards the finish line, it was almost like she hadn't run at all. Her legs were moving faster than they had at mile 1. She was so happy to cross the finish line. She missed her goal time by almost an hour, but she didn't care. She was just happy to finish. She hasn't ruled out running another marathon, but it probably won't be next year. She plans to do the half marathon in August and maybe a few others throughout the summer.

I will add my story later, so you can take this one in for now. So check back in the next couple of days for my experience, and hopefully we will be getting photos soon, so we can post a few.

Long Time

I know it has been awhile and I am sorry.  It just has been really busy for me lately.  We are entering our final week before the marathon and we are excited and nervous about it.  We ran 8 miles today and it is our last run until Saturday the day before the race.  I had a good run and felt good, so I am hoping that that feeling will carry over until next week.  Tonya said her run was a little tough, but she is feeling good about the race.  School is going well for both of us.  Tonya is still enjoying her class and loves having her own classroom.  I am busy with homework, but I am still happy with my decision with switching majors.  Well I need to get back to homework so I must say goodbye for now.  I will definitely blog after the race next weekend, so check back to see how your favorite marathoners did.

Milestones

Each week running is another milestone reached.  A week and a half ago I ran twenty miles in one run for the first time.  Talk about rough.  The crazy thing is I have to do again this weekend and I am looking forward to it.  Another thing that makes me feel like a runner now is the fact that I lost my first toenail from running.  I know it's gross, but you should have seen the nail before I had to pull it off.  Anyways, enough about the gross stuff.  We are only three and a half weeks away from the marathon and I am getting excited.  I want to thank everyone who has donated to our fundraising efforts, knowing we have people supporting us in our quest to run the marathon is the extra push we need to get through some of our training runs.  I know the updates have been lagging again, but my schedule is getting busier everyday with school and work and I don't feel like I have any free time to do some of the extra stuff I used to do.  Tonya has been just as busy also.  She spends many extra hours after school preparing for the next day and now she is starting a class this week to get her math endorsement.  So seeing each other, let alone friends and family, is going to be tough.  We will keep you posted on our next few weeks of training and let you all know how classes are going.  

First Week

Well we made it, our first week back at school and both of us made it through the week.  Tonya had a very busy week with students, but said it went fast and was a lot of fun.  That is all the info she gave me, so I can't be more detailed than that about her week.  

I am really looking forward to the classes I have signed up for this semester.  After my first week I have found out I will be reading 5 novels and an assortment of other readings along with writing many journal entries and papers.  I am taking writing intensive courses, so I am sort of expected it, but it is still a little overwhelming.  Already for next week I have three different writing assignments that equal 15 pages of writing.  Now don't get me wrong, I am looking forward to it, it just seems like a lot to me right now.  

Our marathon training is going well.  We only have about 5 weeks left before the big day, so we are starting to log more and more miles.  We get to run 20 miles tomorrow, which will be a big test for the both of us.  Tonya is still being bothered by shin splints that are slowing her down a little, but she continues to push through the pain.  I have been running some of my best runs lately and hope it will continue through the marathon.  I recently ran my best time for 13 miles the other day and it really gave me the confidence boost I needed to feel like I was ready for the marathon.  I actually shaved 30 minutes off my time from when Tonya and I ran the half marathon.  Many of you may have received an email about the charity we are running for, Organization for Autism Research.  There are links to our fundraising pages on the right side of our blog.  If you've already donated...thank you.  We appreciate your generosity and every little bit helps us reach our goal.

School is about to start

You can definitely tell school is about to start around our house; Tonya has been working all week at getting her classroom ready, staying late and buying supplies, and going to meetings almost everyday.  She seems to be enjoying it though and doesn't complain too much except for not having air conditioning in the room, so if you see Tonya wish her good luck in her new school year.  I get to enjoy a morning of buying books and figuring out last minute things for my classes that begin on Tuesday tomorrow.  I don't know if many of you know this, but I have decided to change majors already.  I wasn't enjoying film classes as much as I was hoping and realized how much I enjoy writing, so I changed my major to Fictional Writing and with this I can still write movie scripts so I can will still continue to do some film stuff.  I am about to embark on a full load this semester trying to take 16 credit hours along with working 25 hours a week and still trying to find time to train for the marathon. 

 About the marathon, we have 5 weeks left before the big day.  It has been going pretty good for me, I feel I am on track to be able to complete the marathon in my goal time, which is 41/2 hours.  Tonya though, has been struggling a little with shin splints and is a little worried she won't be ready.  So if you see her or send her a message give her some support to help her continue on her training.  I know she will do fine, she just needs to get the negativity out of her head.

A long overdue blog.

Well Friends I said I would put a few pictures up of my camping trip with Mat and here are a few of the photos I have.  They are from our trip to the Apostle islands in northern Wisconsin on Lake Superior.  The area reminds me of the Pictured Rocks area in the U.P. with all the rocky cliffs jutting out into the lake.  

The area Mat and I hiked is called the Sea Caves.  There are a bunch of cliffs that you can hike above the caves, which are below the hiking trails.  They have kayak rentals so you can actually kayak into the caves, but the price was a little steep for us.  As you can see they had plenty of warnings on how dangerous the cliffs were, but Mat being Mat, didn't feel like being careful and would rather enjoy the view.
I on the other hand felt like enjoying the view from a safer distance and stayed closer to the trail.  Right before we headed out for our 9 mile hike, one of the park rangers came up to us to let us know that there had been a bear sighting.  They said it could be a little aggressive because she had two cubs with her, so they said to be careful.  This didn't keep us from going out on the hike, but it did make us be a little more cautious of our surroundings.  Another cool thing about our trip was that during the night while we were cooking our dinner we heard some rustling near our campsite and figured it was just raccoons or squirrels, but found out the next morning that it was a black bear.  We made sure to keep our food in the car for the weekend, because we really didn't want a visitor like that waking us up.
At the half-way point of our hike we came upon the beach, and Mat decided to take his shoes off and try to tolerate the cold Lake Superior water.  It was a beautiful weekend while we were up there.  It was sunny and comfortable the whole time, until the morning we were going to leave.  A small storm came through and got everything wet so it made packing the tents a little less fun, but over all we couldn't complain about our time in the north.
On another note, we have a visitor for the week.  Her name is Fudge and is one of my co-workers dog.  As you can see Zoey loves having a play-mate, Ana on the other hand isn't really happy with another dog in the house.  Zoey and Fudge really hit it off and love playing with each other, which is a problem with how small our apartment is.  We are watching Fudge just for the week, she is pretty good, but we will be happy when we are back to one dog and one cat.