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.
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