March 29th we traveled to Southern Oklahoma for a few things. First things first, we had a family birthday party for Alivia on Saturday morning in Durant with Brandon's family. Shortly after the party Brandon and I loaded up the car and off we went to the A2A Maraton {Another race adventure}!
We arrived at the expo on Saturday afternoon. Packet pick up was easy-breezy, no lines and we even found a few goodies at the small booth they had set up at the expo. We had a little time to kill before the pasta dinner so we went exploring in downtown Ardmore. They were having their Music and Taste of Ardmore Festival so we grabbed a few tickets and enjoyed a slice of pizza from a local pizza place before heading back for dinner #2 at the pasta dinner. {Tickets to the pasta dinner were included in your race registration fee!} At the dinner we learned that this race is 100% volunteer ran. Not a single person is paid for their work in organizing this marathon. With that being said it was probably one of the best ran races we have ever been too! Great job A2A team!!
Saturday night Brandon and I stayed the night in the Durant Falls Creek cabin. It was fun to go back and see everything that had changed there. We got there a little before sun set so we went exploring! I had a great time with Brandon. We are very blessed with family that loves our babies when we sneak away!
We played a little ping-pong, ate a great snack, laid out all of our clothes for the next day and off to bed we went with a early wake up call of 5AM!
The A2A Marathon is different than anything Brandon and I have ran before because it is a point-to-point run. So when we arrived at the stadium Brandon got on a bus that took him to the start of the Half Marathon and I got on a bus that took me onto the Full Marathon starting line. The air was chilly so I ended up staying on the bus until 15 minutes before the race was scheduled to start. While sitting on the bus I got to chat with Angie of Marathon Training Academy. {Check her and Trevor out! We love their podcast!} The buses drove away leaving me and 106 other people on top of the mountain ready to run 26.2 miles.
The gun went off and the feeling I had was very surreal. It was crazy starting as such a small group. This was the smallest race I ever ran, and it was a real mental battle at first being at the back of pack. I kept reminding myself that I was there to run my race, and i couldn't compare myself to anyone else on the road that day.
Miles 1-6 were pretty much down hill, the weather was perfect, the wind was chilly so I kept my sleeve on for the majority of the these miles. At mile 7 we turned and went onto a Ranch where we ran miles 7,8,9&10. The ranch was beautiful, this portion of the race was a loop so I got to see the leaders of the race. Feeling good at this point.
Between mile 13-14 Brandon, the kids, and his parents came and found me on the course. Still feeling good, but the wind was starting to pick up, and the sun was shining bright. The next 6 miles were tough. I begin doing run/walk intervals around mile 15. Mile 17 I wrote Brandon a text message and all it said was "kill me". That was the slowest mile of the day for me coming in at 13mins51seconds. I walked a lot of those six miles. It was pretty hilly, and so so so windy. One of the hardest parts of the day was being out on the course all alone. The race was awesome and there were water stops pretty much every mile from 12 on, but runners were few and far between.
BUT I knew mile 20 was coming and we would finally get to turn and the wind would be at my side and back for a few miles. I had a renewed spirit and felt pretty strong the last 6 miles. I ended up passing several people at the end of the race.
I finally came across the finish line at 4hours58minutes. My slowest of my 3 official marathons I have ran, but I am still super proud of the hard work I put in to earn that medal.
Overall this race was awesome. It was well organized, ran %100 by volunteers, and definitely a race we will be doing in the future! {And you should too!}
Big shout out to my mother-in-law and father-in-law for watching the babies for us and cheering us on, to Aunt Peggy for driving up to see me finish, and for all of our supporters here. Thanks for cheering me on!
We arrived at the expo on Saturday afternoon. Packet pick up was easy-breezy, no lines and we even found a few goodies at the small booth they had set up at the expo. We had a little time to kill before the pasta dinner so we went exploring in downtown Ardmore. They were having their Music and Taste of Ardmore Festival so we grabbed a few tickets and enjoyed a slice of pizza from a local pizza place before heading back for dinner #2 at the pasta dinner. {Tickets to the pasta dinner were included in your race registration fee!} At the dinner we learned that this race is 100% volunteer ran. Not a single person is paid for their work in organizing this marathon. With that being said it was probably one of the best ran races we have ever been too! Great job A2A team!!
Saturday night Brandon and I stayed the night in the Durant Falls Creek cabin. It was fun to go back and see everything that had changed there. We got there a little before sun set so we went exploring! I had a great time with Brandon. We are very blessed with family that loves our babies when we sneak away!
We played a little ping-pong, ate a great snack, laid out all of our clothes for the next day and off to bed we went with a early wake up call of 5AM!
The A2A Marathon is different than anything Brandon and I have ran before because it is a point-to-point run. So when we arrived at the stadium Brandon got on a bus that took him to the start of the Half Marathon and I got on a bus that took me onto the Full Marathon starting line. The air was chilly so I ended up staying on the bus until 15 minutes before the race was scheduled to start. While sitting on the bus I got to chat with Angie of Marathon Training Academy. {Check her and Trevor out! We love their podcast!} The buses drove away leaving me and 106 other people on top of the mountain ready to run 26.2 miles.
The gun went off and the feeling I had was very surreal. It was crazy starting as such a small group. This was the smallest race I ever ran, and it was a real mental battle at first being at the back of pack. I kept reminding myself that I was there to run my race, and i couldn't compare myself to anyone else on the road that day.
Miles 1-6 were pretty much down hill, the weather was perfect, the wind was chilly so I kept my sleeve on for the majority of the these miles. At mile 7 we turned and went onto a Ranch where we ran miles 7,8,9&10. The ranch was beautiful, this portion of the race was a loop so I got to see the leaders of the race. Feeling good at this point.
Between mile 13-14 Brandon, the kids, and his parents came and found me on the course. Still feeling good, but the wind was starting to pick up, and the sun was shining bright. The next 6 miles were tough. I begin doing run/walk intervals around mile 15. Mile 17 I wrote Brandon a text message and all it said was "kill me". That was the slowest mile of the day for me coming in at 13mins51seconds. I walked a lot of those six miles. It was pretty hilly, and so so so windy. One of the hardest parts of the day was being out on the course all alone. The race was awesome and there were water stops pretty much every mile from 12 on, but runners were few and far between.
BUT I knew mile 20 was coming and we would finally get to turn and the wind would be at my side and back for a few miles. I had a renewed spirit and felt pretty strong the last 6 miles. I ended up passing several people at the end of the race.
I finally came across the finish line at 4hours58minutes. My slowest of my 3 official marathons I have ran, but I am still super proud of the hard work I put in to earn that medal.
Overall this race was awesome. It was well organized, ran %100 by volunteers, and definitely a race we will be doing in the future! {And you should too!}
Big shout out to my mother-in-law and father-in-law for watching the babies for us and cheering us on, to Aunt Peggy for driving up to see me finish, and for all of our supporters here. Thanks for cheering me on!
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