Marathon done. Check!

The weather - gorgeous! Thanks for praying!
The run - HARD!
The Finish - exhilirating! I was doing well and sprinted to the finish because a fellow Indiana person came up behind me.
The time - 6:00 hours
The victory party - starts now! I'll write more later!!!

I'm back from the party and here's the more...
The sun was out when we woke up (of course, it's ALASKA!) and it stayed out most of the time. There were times it was overcast, but it was just perfect! I now have a really good runners tan.
The "Tank trail" (called such because it's on army land and tanks run on it) was HARD! They smoothed out the first part of the trail for us - apparently it was pretty bad. But, after the first couple miles on it, it turned to gravel /rocky road with some good divets in it. Definitely hard on the feet/ankles/knees!
After the tank trail we were on hiking type trails. They warned us about the mosquitos out here and they weren't kidding! I stopped at one point to fix something on my shoe and it took me twice as long to fix it because I swatted or killed at least 10 of those critters. And, they are not little either! Their bodies are probably an inch long!
We were glad to exit the trails and start the downhill slope - about mile 17. We walked a little and the ran when we knew our photo was about to be taken. (NOTE: I tried intentionally to keep that pinky of mine in for that picture. Hopefully it doesn't look like I'm ready for a tea party again.) :)
As we entered the college campus, some students made THE BEST aid station. It had gatorade, Oreos, pretzels, foods of all sorts, including POPSICLES!!!!! At mile 19 that felt like the best thing since sliced bread.
Not long after that, I lost my running partner...she pulled her IT band and I had to stay in a running form in order to keep going. At that point it was harder to walk than run. So, I chugged along...21...22...23...24...seeing those mile signs grow was encouraging. I kept waiting for this steep hill they told us about...mile 25... and then the hill.
It really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Especially, when someone said there was a little downhill as we headed toward the high school. Winding into the high school, I was very excited...Oh! I almost forgot....one of my favorite songs these days is "Love Has Come" by Matt Maher. Pre-race and for most of the race, I could only remember the last verse, the chorus and the bridge; and I sang that many times as I was running. Somewhere around mile 21 or 22, I remembered a second verse! I was soooo excited! I had new words to sing!...
Ok, back to reaching the school...now the song changed to "Sing Praises" by Third Day. If YOU had just run 26 miles and could feel the prayers of people you know praying for your safety and the weather, you'd be singing praises too! So, I dug deep and increased speed a little and started towards the finish line. Suddenly, I hear a friendly "Hey! " from behind me. It was a fellow Hoosier and she just passed me. I was not about to let her beat me to the finish line! I shouted a you-can't-do-that "Hey!" back at her, dug even deeper inside and began a sprint to the finish. Each step my legs were yelling at me. I caught up to her and it was a "photo" finish to see who won. :)
Actually, we are all winners of this race. Of 1200 Team In Training participants in this race from all over North America, we raised 2.4 million dollars!!!! Thanks to many of you for being part of this team!

If you've read this far, thank you for your interest! When I get pictures, I'll attempt to post a couple on this blog.

oh and yes, I do have an event picked for next year. No, it's not a marathon. stayed tuned for more details!

Officially in Alaska!

We made it! We are officially in Alaska! The plane rides went well. It was a little disappointing on the long flight up here. It was a 5 hour flight and there was no in flight movie. Although I was a little surprised by that, it was a smooth flight most of the way and gave me the chance to add a couple hours of sleep to the 2.5 I got Wednesday night. (Packing and fixing my MP3 player took a little longer than planned.)

It's a little cool here and the clouds are definitely out. But, it's so neat to look up and see mountains in the landscape. Chris, one of the TNT members, claims if we remove the mountains from the backdrop we could be in Muncie, IN. It's a weird feeling to travel so far and it be the same language and foods and stuff. For example, when we arrived this afternoon (evening for us), some of us were pretty hungry and we didn't want to travel far for food, so we walked across the street to Outback. Thinking it was dinner time, we thought it would be open. When the doors didn't open we realized it was only 1:30/2pm! What a long day! Anyway, we did a 180 and found Wayne's Texas BBQ! We are in Alaska and we ate at a TEXAS BBQ place!

That's the update for the day. With free internet service here at the hotel, I should be able to update the blog with marathon completion information on Saturday or Sunday.

They are still predicting rain all weekend. Please continue to pray for some sunshine or at least for the rain to hold off.

Never has come to an end

Yes, my friends. This evening, on a normal route to Wal-Mart, Mr. Policeman stopped me and I received my first traffic citation. 14 years ago I received a warning for speeding and was told had I received a ticket it would have been $75. Today, $150. Times changed.
After my Wal-Mart visit, I went for a run. It was a good run and helped me shake the remaining shock from the stop. A funny thing... I passed the same policeman twice on my run. I didn't see him until after a cyclist had made a comment to me about getting out of the way. (Note: I wasn't in the way, we have to share the road MISTER!) So, once I saw Mr. Policeman I wondered if the cyclist complained about me and Mr. Policeman was after me again! I wasn't all that paranoid. The second time he came around I waved at him and wondered if he recognized me.
Moral of the story...Stop completely at stop signs. You never know when the neighborhood policeman is watching.

Rain! Rain! Go AWAY!

As the trip to Alaska draws near, I am getting more and more excited to finally run this marathon. I'm also very excited to experience the grandeur of the Alaskan landscape! HOWEVER, I've been checking the weather for Anchorage the past couple days and it doesn't look to good. The 10 day outlook on weather.com shows a couple more days with sunshine and then it's showers every day! We are arriving in Alaska next Thursday. It would be SO nice if the sun came out when we arrived and stayed until we left. Weather like the day of the Mini Marathon in Indianapolis would be perfect...not too hot, not too cold. It was just right!
So, as you pray for safe travels for me and the team and a safe run for all of us. Please pray for nice weather too!
I just had another thought...If it rans all week, the 7 miles of trails could be a little muddy!
I can't believe the race is almost here!!!