After some talking to

Clearly this picture is before we hit the wall when we were still enjoying the marathon. For those of you asking that Blonde is not Blondie it BMoreJen.



And reading this amazing aritcle on Deena Kastor and her review on the London Marathon I have realized that everyone has a bad marathon and Paris was mine. On May 4th I will be entering the lottery for the London Marathon. So I am either CRAZY and FOOLISH...or I have now become a MARATHON RUNNER.



Read below to on Deena Kastor experience.

Kastor felled by cramps, tightness, allergy


After an arduous two-day journey to London via Paris, Deena Kastor's trip from the start at Blackheath to the finish line on The Mall of today's Virgin London Marathon was even more unpleasant. The American had a rare off-day, struggling to finish 18th in 2:36:20. It was the slowest time for any marathon she had completed in her career since taking up the event in 2001.

By David Monti, Special to Universal Sports | Posted: Apr 25, 9:59a ET | Updated: Apr 25, 10:59a ET

LONDON -- After an arduous two-day journey to London via Paris, Deena Kastor's trip from the start at Blackheath to the finish line on The Mall of Sunday's Virgin London Marathon was even more unpleasant.

The American marathon record holder, who won the London race in 2006, had a rare off-day, struggling to the finish line in 18th place in 2:36:20. It was the slowest time for any marathon she had completed in her career since taking up the event in 2001.

"I felt terrible right from the start," Kastor said in an exclusive interview after the race. "I tucked in and just thought I needed to shake out travel and tightness. I felt very tight and stiff at the beginning of the race, and it never shook out."

Kastor, 37, of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., was running in the main pack through the first 5 kilometers. Wearing a black racing uniform with a black cap to keep the unexpected rain out of her eyes, she was running on pace for a low-2:20's marathon. But by the time the lead pack hit 10 kilometers, Kastor was no longer visible on the BBC's race coverage. The event's timing system showed that she was 33 seconds back and running alone.

"I was cramping and tight in my back and my legs from probably about mile-6," Kastor explained. "Then at that point thinking like that felt like the half-way point was pretty discouraging. I looked up at the (lead) truck at one point when the pack was leaving me and I saw that their third mile was 5:05. And I said, 'OK, I'll just stay steady at this pace and maybe some people would start to fall off the pack and I can start reeling people back in.'"

But things would only get worse for the 2004 Olympic Marathon bronze medallist. After crossing Tower Bridge alone, and passing the half-way check-point in 1:13:41, Kastor was now behind the leaders by two minutes and 46 seconds. As she crossed the bridge she looked at the Guoman Tower Hotel just a few meters away to her right and started to think about dropping out.

"I just didn't think I could even finish the race," she said. "It was actually a terrible morning to run by the hotel on two occasions, the half-way point and the 22-mile point. At both of those times I had to fight with myself to keep moving as opposed to dipping into the hotel to shower up and catch some sleep, or something. I did not have it today and I have no idea why."

The tightness in her legs and back and the muscle cramping were bad enough, but Kastor now had a new problem. She began to have some kind of an allergic reaction.

"At about the half-way point I started to get really hot and itchy," she said. "I've had problems with exercise-induced allergies before, and the last time I had that kind of systemic response was six years ago at Stanford where I broke out in hives. I thought it was strawberries, and I stopped eating strawberries. But I had it in the race today and I had to go to the medical tent after the race to get some antihistamines to calm my skin down. Just a really off day in so many ways."

But Kastor would not quit. She had last dropped out of a marathon in the Beijing Olympics in 2008 when a bone in her foot snapped, and refused to give up today.

"I just didn't want to drop out of another race," Kastor said. "I dropped out of New York before, I was forced to drop out of Beijing, and I don't want to ever have to do that unless it's dire circumstances. If I could keep moving forward, I wanted to commit to that finish line. I put too much work into this race to not get there."

Although disappointed, Kastor chose to take a philosophical approach to today's setback. The marathon, she agreed, is a monster which can never be fully tamed.

"I think that's why we come back to the marathon over, and over, and over again because we feel like just tweak something in our training, or change our race strategy that we can get there a little more brilliantly the next time. It keeps us coming back."

Kastor's next marathon will be the ING New York City Marathon in November. This will be my 3rd Marathon..so Deena I will see you there ;)

Allez Jackie Allez

This picture was taken the day before the race, before we walked around for 5 hours on both Friday and Saturday......clearly we made a couple of mistakes..... ;)

And the race STARTS!!!

The Paris Marathon was Sunday April 11th. Emotionally it was the hardest of my two marathons. I had trained for this marathon, but I injured my IT band and I knew going in I was not going to hit a PR (PR is a personal record just an FYI). I was ok with that because I knew that this was more of a fun run for me. A fun run that just happened to be 26.2 miles.

The start of the run was great my first 10 miles were awesome I was on track and the course was filled with spectators yelling Allez Jackie Alelez (which means GO Jackie GO). As I said the first 10 miles were great. The second 10 were great and Jenn and I had a great pace going and we were on track to getting a PR which was such an added plus. Along the course they had the most amazing oranges which were probably the best oranges I have ever had in my life!

Then I hit mile 20 (which i believe was when i hit that stupid flipping wall!) Jenn was not feeling it. I told her we had to keep it up, we were doing great and we only had 6.2 miles left. This was the easy part. I remember the NY marathon and these 6.2 miles were the easiest miles ever. The crowds in Central Park were amazing and as I entered the race I saw the best sign...

Enter picture of sign (Will do this later as I cannot get on facebook at work ;)) *Update* Computer is out of wack at home...waiting to get new one. Should be end of this week.

I truly believe that the sign alone got me through the marathon and I pushed it till the end. Well let's say that the last 6.2 miles of this marathon were NOT the same! We entered Bvd D'Auteul and that is when it went down hill. We went from having spectators to having nothing... no one. Just the runners. Mentally this was where I hit the godforsaken wall. I tried to stay with Jenn but she was worn out as well, so as much as it hurt me to leave her at mile 23, I had too. I knew if I slowed down again I was not going to make it. Yes it was really that serious. So at mile 23 I asked her if she was ok and she said yes to go ahead, so I went on without her. For me that was the one of the hardest decisions I had to make, but I knew that I had to or else this marathon would have been the death of me. A picture of the course that almost killed me...

Those last three miles had to be the hardest three miles ever in life. At one moment I almost stopped and walked but I questioned myself "You're stopping? You didn't stop for NY, not once, and now you're stopping in Paris? Oh hell no!!" Yes, sometimes...no let me rephrase that actually I always have conversations with myself so I managed to keep my feet moving by not thinking about it. Not sure how I did that exactly, but I did. At mile 24 I thought ok i am almost home. Lets think about the boy and what is going on with that boy...this situation, that situation...the food I was going to have for lunch and for dinner, the crepes..oh and the beer!!! I went through all these thoughts and dammit I had only made it one mile...why was this getting so hard?

Mile 25, I really didn't know what I was going to do. I had tears in my eyes. The pain was getting to me. Then I remembered "Pain is weakness leaving the body" and so it was. I had a mini conversation with myself (yes again) I was reminiscing about NY and how awesome I felt crossing that finish line and how i was going to work a lot with Coach Brian this year because I want to kill my time. Then I started my tradition...I began to sing New York by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys and I swear before I knew it there it was, Mile 26. And finally I saw some people!! Thankfully!!

My inspiration that got me through the last 4 miles! I Love NEW YORK!
As I got closer to the finish I moved faster and faster I wanted to get to the finish so fast that I pushed it super hard and I did. I didn't hit my PR but at least now I know how to get through that stupid wall that everyone talks about.

So as of now that was my one and only international marathon. I am done, no more, I am sticking strictly to the States.

Asics Ad's for Paris Marathon

Many of you might remember how OBSESSED I was with the NYC Marathon Asics Ad's. Well Paris has them too!!

With less than FIVE DAYS, yes 5, cinco, cinq days to Paris. I cannot find them on line but be sure that I will find them throughout Paris and I will share the AD's with you because they truly are genius!! :)

Today Vane, leaves to Paris see you Friday love!!

Thank you everyone for all your emotional support! I am really super excited!!