26.2 Miles: Check!!

He did it!

Travis ran his first full marathon on Saturday! He ran the Country Music Marathon in Nashville…the same race that we did the half marathon in last year.

It was a different experience this time around but still awesome. (I can say that because I’m not the one walking around like an old man…haha). This year, it was just the two of us that went up there. Nate was supposed to run the marathon too, but unfortunately he wasn’t able to at the last minute. So, Friday afternoon around 2 PM, we headed up to Nashville. Brooklyn stayed behind with Grandpa and Rae-Rae, which was definitely the right decision based on the weather.

We headed straight to the Expo where we picked up Travis’s race packet and t-shirt. It was crowded like last year, but it was very organized and didn’t really take that long. We walked around for a little while (to sample all the free stuff!) before heading to supper. Being the creatures of habit that we are, we decided to eat at the same restaurant that we ate at last year before the race. We even got seated at the exact same table as last year…just a coincidence, but we decided it meant good luck. Mafiaoza’s was just as good this year as it was last year!

After supper, we checked in at our hotel, got our stuff organized, and pretty much just went straight to bed. Travis wanted to get as much sleep as possible since we needed to be up early. I was hoping to sleep longer than normal too, but I ended up having to pump twice in the middle of the night instead of just once. Argh. (By the way, exclusively pumping for 24 hours really makes you appreciate breastfeeding. Pumping that much is a hassle!).

We got up Saturday morning, and it was already raining. Luckily, we had planned for the rain, so we had ponchos, towels, a change of clothes for after the race, etc. This year, our hotel was much closer to the race than the one we stayed in last year, but it still took us longer to get there. We made the mistake of waiting to leave the hotel until 5:45 AM, and apparently everyone else decided to leave theirs at the same time! By the time we got there, got parked, hopped on the shuttle, and made it to the start line, it was already almost time for the race to start! We missed the moment of silence for the Boston Marathon victims, which I hated, but what can you do when you get stuck in traffic like that?

It started raining harder just about the time we got to the starting line, so we knew we were in for a fun time! :)

Yes, Travis is wearing a garbage bag. Garbage bags = throwaway ponchos for runners! He actually tore it a little bit shorter and wore it for the first 13 miles of the race until he realized that his shirt was soaked anyway. That’s how hard it was raining I guess. The tape on his shin is KT Tape…he tried it out to see if that would help that muscle in his leg that had been bothering him lately.

The race started at 7 AM, but Travis didn’t get started until close to 7:30 AM because they have a wave start. If everyone started at the same time, it would be a stampede! Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see him running until almost the end of the race. After he started, I had to find somewhere to pump, which was difficult because it was pouring down rain. By the time I found somewhere and finished, I walked to around the 10 mile mark, but I barely missed him! He had just run by right before I got there. (I was getting texts updating me where he was along the course. Definitely worth the $2!).

Nerd alert: I was probably the one person at that race with a laminated two-sided course map. How do I know? Because we made it ourselves! I knew I needed a map so that I wouldn’t get lost, but a soggy map wouldn’t do me any good. So, we printed one at home Thursday night and laminated it. It was a LIFESAVER! I didn’t have to worry about it getting wet, so I just carried it around with me all morning. I also made lots of “friends” when people needed directions…it was pretty funny. Several people said, “I should have picked up one of THOSE maps!” If they only knew…

Anyway, after leaving the 10 mile mark, I walked to another spot on the course where it makes a big loop. I was able to see Travis around the 20 mile and 25 mile mark. He looked great considering he’d been running in the cold and rain for hours! I was so proud of him! I didn’t get any pictures of him while he was running (because I didn’t want to get my cell phone all wet), but I managed to get one video of him the second time he passed by. Not great quality because I was walking and yelling, but oh well!

 

 

Travis said he felt great for the first 20 miles. His leg injury never bothered him (not sure if it was the tape or the Aleve that he’d taken), so that was awesome. He passed the 13.1 mile mark at almost the same time he’d run the half marathon in last year. Very impressive  considering the nasty weather! But, by the time he got to mile 21 or 22, things started going downhill. He said that his legs were on the verge of cramping up for the last several miles. He ended up stopping one time not because he meant to, but his legs just quit moving. I’ve never experienced anything like it, but it sounds crazy. He did manage to make it to the finish line though! His official time was 3:53:54, and his goal was to finish in under 4 hours. Yay!!

I don’t think either of us anticipated how much pain he would be in after the race. Last year, we were both tired and sore after the half marathon, but it was a good feeling. We were on that “runner’s high” I think. This year, he was just glad to be finished. No adrenaline rush at the end. The cramping he had in his quads and hamstrings was no joke. He could barely walk after he finished and had to be assisted by two EMTs out of the finish line area. After I met up with him, I helped him stretch and then we headed (very slowly) to the car. Nobody was really sticking around after the race because of the rain, although it actually stopped raining right after he finished. Go figure! :)

After we got in the car, we were definitely ready to get into some dry clothes. So, we changed, stopped by Chick-fil-a for lunch, and headed home to see Miss B!

When we got home, we found Brooklyn in Rae Rae’s lap with a sign she’d made:

We were glad to get home and see Brooklyn after being away from her that long. I’ll admit it was a nice break, but we were missing her by the end of it!

Luckily, Brooklyn didn’t miss a beat while we were gone. She apparently wasn’t too fussy, ate well from the bottle, and slept pretty well too. Yay! At least she didn’t scare off our volunteer babysitters :)

Mom and Dad must have trained her right while they were here because two nights ago, Brooklyn went from 9 PM to 4:30 AM in between feedings. I slept for 6.5 hours straight!! It was marvelous. Now we just have to get her to keep it up!

Well, I can’t say just how proud I am of Travis. I never doubted that he could do it (he’s got a pretty strong will!), but I think running a marathon must take willpower to a whole new level. I’m not sure I could do it (and don’t really want to after seeing its after effects), but I admire everyone who’s done it. Travis is still hobbling around like an old man, but hopefully each day will get a little bit better. He’s planning to take some time off from running for a while to give his legs a break, and it will be nice for him to have his evenings and Saturdays free again. As crazy as it sounds, I don’t think he’s ruling out more marathons in his future…but probably not anytime soon. I know better than to try to stop him though if he sets his mind to it. It didn’t take too long of being married to him to figure that one out! :)