My First Marathon

Check.

Today I ran a marathon … something I said I wanted to check off of my list of things to do and today I did it. It was a good day start to finish.

At the starting line of the marathon a guy with the words "Woot!Woot!" on the front of his shirt stood next to me. I don't know what the sign on his shirt was all about but he looked over and asked, “What’s your goal time?”

I said, “I’d like to run about 4 hours and 30 minutes but my main goal is to finish. If I do that I’ll be happy.” So I asked him “What’s your goal time.”

He said, “I don’t have a goal time. I trained with a friend to try to help him finish his first marathon and he bailed on me. So I'm running for fun and to finish.”

So I asked, “How many marathons have you run?”

He said, “This will be my third. What about you?”

I said, “This is my first.”

To which he replied, “Once you cross that finish line today your life will never be the same.”

It took me aback that he would say that. I never assumed that finishing a marathon would change my life. Giving my life to God, getting married and having kids have changed my life because they changed my priorities and reoriented the way I live. Somehow I don’t think finishing a marathon will do the same, but I will be able to say that I’ve done something through discipline and effort that few other people would even think to attempt.

A couple of people helped me today. First Andrea went with me and she provided support for me on the course. She met me a couple of places and gave me Power Gel and Ibuprofen when I needed it. It was a boost to my running to see someone who loves me cheer me on and tell me I could make it. I could not do life without Andrea and I would not have wanted to run my first marathon without her either.

Also I saw Edwin and Jenny on the half-marathon course. Both of them said something to the effect of “Go Tommy!” I missed seeing Jenny’s husband Wes but he sent me an email today and said “Way to go.” Wes, Jenny and Jenny's dad finished the half-marathon together which is way cool.

My friend Mark parked his car downtown and ran 6 miles back to the 20 mile mark and “ran me in” from 20. At about the 24 ½ mile mark he saw a friend who was struggling and since I was doing okay he let me go ahead and helped her make it to the finish line.

And then after the marathon was over we got to my parent's house and mom, dad, Tori, Jakeb, and Anna had bought me a cake that said "Congratulations Tommy!" I've got good kids and parents.

I know quite a few of you prayed for me.

Thanks everybody!

I finished in 4:13:12 chip time (from starting line to finish line). I ran 4:16:51 clock time (from starting gun to finish). If you wonder what the difference is you’ll have to ask me sometime.

It was a good day. The results were beyond my expectations. I may just have to try it again sometime.