Lucky #4

Yesterday I finished my 4th marathon - Mercedes Marathon!!!  I decided to this marathon for a number of reasons - REALLY cool medal, relatively close to home (~4 hours away) and one of my training partners was doing it as a part of the 3N3 Alabama Marathon challenge.

After I finished the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October, I decided that I would keep my mileage up and kinda stay in "marathon training mode" until February.  I didn't have a real time goal for this race, other than just getting out there and enjoying it and getting my medal at the end.  I had heard this race was pretty hilly and tough.

My mom and I drove up to Birmingham on Saturday, the day before the race.  She had been at my first two marathons, but she didn't go with me to Washington, D.C., so I was really glad to know she would be out there on the race course.

I started to get a little nervous leading up to the race because the forecast went from lows in the 40's to lows in the 20's - making it even colder than Marine Corps (and it snowed the day before!).  However, I stuck with my plan of wearing a short sleeved shirt, shorts, compression socks and arm warmers.  I also wore gloves and ear warmers.  I brought a long sleeved shirt that I didn't mind throwing away on the course; I wore it for the first 4 3/4 miles before I decided I was warm enough to take it off.  My legs were tingling from the cold at first but they eventually warmed up too.

I didn't start really thinking about my finish time until around mile 16 when I saw a 4:00 pace group.  I thought that if I had made it this far I might could stick with them for the rest of the race.  I was a little concerned that my stop at the potty could keep me from a sub-4 finish time, and that just made me mad.  lol  I just kept telling myself that I felt good and it was important to finish the race happy.  It wasn't until I passed the clock at mile 25 that I let myself get excited about finishing under 4 hours.  Even better - I set a new PR with 3:52!!!!  I was beyond excited.

A few other thoughts about the race:
- This was my first marathon that was a double loop.  I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, but it was fine.  I don't know if it was better or not, but I didn't hate it.
- It was so cold that the water/powerade cups had ice chips in them, which was kind of fun.  I like slushies.  However, there were also patches of ice at the water stops, which was not fun.  I slipped a little once, and that was scary.
- There weren't a lot of funny sings like you see at big races, but I did see one and it was the best one I've seen at all my races - "You trained for this race longer than Kim Kardashian was married."  True story - technically I had been training for this marathon since the end of May.

In short, it was a great race.  Beautiful (even though cold) weather, new PR, no injuries, super-cool medal and I had a great trip with my mom.  I think Huntsville may be next!