5 hours & 38 minutes after crossing starting line...

Yep, that's right.  The St. Jude Memphis Marathon was this past weekend.  I have been stressed out for the last couple months.  And it got here way too fast!!  Just as I figured, I was a pot of nerves all the way to the event.  I felt sick at my stomach, but then we got there and all my nerves flew away as soon as I got in my "corral".  Yes..."corral".  For those that don't know what that is, let me explain.  Because it would be absolutely ludicris to have 18,000 people start off running at the exact same time (b/c the half and full marathoners were running together), they do "wave starts".  A corral is a section marked w/ your pace per mile based off of a previous half marathon or full marathon.  I started in corral 8.  At 8am, the first corral went, then 2 minutes later, the 2nd corral went, and so on.  Then came my turn.  Our corral took off.  We ran through downtown, thru St. Jude's grounds, by zoo, audubon park and then headed back downtown.  Once downtown, the half marathoners turned right heading towards the Redbirds stadium to finish and the full marathoners went straight to complete the course.  I was still feeling good at the halfway mark (13.1 miles).  Then at mile 15, the battery on my phone died so I couldn't listen to my music anymore (UGH).  I was tiring pretty quickly, but the problems really started setting in at mile 20.  My right foot/ankle felt like it was swollen to twice it's normal size.  My left knee felt like it was about to fall off.  It hurt every single time I landed on that side...and that was even with a knee brace on.  And I had 6.2 miles still to run.  At about mile 21, my body could no longer take it.  I have to squat on the side of the road to stretch my leg muscles.  I wanted to sit down, but I was so afraid that if I did sit, I would NOT be getting back up unless there was a vehicle there to take me home.  So, between mile 21 and 26.2, I did a lot of walking/running.  I was in tears at a couple points due to the pain my knee was enduring.  And I wanted so badly to quit several times, but....I just kept thinking of all those kids that I was doing this for.  It wasn't for me.  I can say that I've run a marathon, but some of those kids at St. Jude are not guaranteed tomorrow.  So, 5 hours and 38 minutes after taking off, I crossed that finish line.  I was never so happy to see a finish line as I had been then.  But it was all worth it knowing how much we all helped those kids out.  The below is a pic of me at the start....

Now, you will never see a pic of me at the end (not a good image of me), but as my daughter says "you get what you get and you don't pitch a fit" (now if only she would heed her own advice).