We finished the marathon!

No pictures, but plenty of sore muscles:). We woke up before dawn to get to the start line, only to have the race delayed by 45 minutes because of rain (which made the dark night even darker). The race was long and slow, with really heavy winds, and hard rain the 2nd half. The first half we ran really well, 10 minute miles, no walking, barely any water/bathroom breaks- I felt great. As we were looping around the second time it was a bit lonely. The huge majority of the runners were only doing the half marathon, so by our second loop there really weren't any spectators and even some of the cones had been removed, allowing cars to whiz past us- pretty dangerous considering the rain. I ran really, really slowly the second half- 12 minute miles, a few water/bathroom breaks, and stopping to stretch once or twice. By the last mile, Tonio and I were squinting at each other through the heavy rain that was beating at our face, and laughing at the situation: what are we doing??? and why are we the only ones doing it??? Our last mile was a 15 minute mile, which really is just walking but doing the motions of running- but at least we were moving. I felt like the wind was actually pushing us backwards and I asked Tonio if in fact we were moving forward:). It was crazy, but we finally finished. Like my old cross-country coach used to say: Pain is temporary, pride is forever. Marathon #6- my last marathon... maybe?:)