Phoenix Marathon

Just got back from Phoenix, AZ. What a fabulous trip that was. The race was 100% great. I got a new personal best time of 3:43:14 (an even 8:30 avg pace) but when you consider aid stations and the 2+ mile uphill climb my actual running pace was closer 8:20. Not too shabby.

For those of you that don't know there was a big of a competition between my brothers and I. We had all very similar marathon times & so this was kind of a shake down to see who would win. At the start of the race all 3 of my brothers took off and I was absolutely sure they were going to kick my butt. You can imagine my surprise when I passed 2 of them at mile 21, and then caught up to the last one at mile 25. I told him we should finish together. We ran together for about 30 seconds before he dropped back and told me to just go on, so I did. I flew through the last 2 miles (8:20 & 8:10) my legs were screaming at me and there were several times when I thought I was just going to collapse...obviously I didn't.

I saw people walking and wanted to stop and walk more than anything, but thought of all the people cheering me on, both at the race and home in FL and knew I couldn't let them down. So I pushed through and finally finally I got to the finish. As I ran through and realized I had gotten a new best and come in first in my family I couldn't help but just scream/shout "I did it!! I did it!!! I'm first!!!!" People thought I was crazy because as far as they knew I wasn't first in anything. Haha. It was a great finish and I am still on some crazy high from having such a great race.

Everyone did fabulously, my dad did his very first race, a half marathon in 2:22. A great time. I think he really enjoyed it because he came home and signed up for another half marathon. You go dad! It was so great to be with so much family, even my grandparents came out to cheer us through the finish. I love that there are so many of us that run. It makes for a great race.

Anyways, here are some pics from the race. Enjoy!