What It Felt Like To Run My First Marathon

I did it. On November 3, 2018 I ran my first marathon. I’m not really sure where to begin, because I have so many different emotions swirling around inside of me.

(Disclaimer: I also get real “capsy” throughout this post. Meaning, I use all caps when I recount what I was thinking during the race, because I think when you’re running, and thinking, you’re really just yelling at yourself and everything is painful and exciting at the same time. So, all caps are necessary.)

For some people, running comes easily to them. Or maybe better said, running is just something they go out and do without much training and without much worry. For me, it’s not that easy. When I decided four years ago that I wanted to run my first half marathon, I started training in July for a race in November. The thought of running even nine miles scared me, so I knew I had to start training much sooner than most.

And the same goes for the marathon. Each time I’d start training for a marathon (three times), I’d get injured. It was demoralizing, so when I started training for the Novant Health Charlotte Marathon, let’s just say I wasn’t too hopeful given my previous relationship with marathons.

But as the days and the weeks and the months ticked by during training, I slowly began to realize that, “Hey, maybe I am going to do this!” And I had a huge support system to boot – coaching from Jamey Yon at TriYon Performance, all of the fellow Charlotte Marathon ambassadors and team, my PT – Matt Minard, my boyfriend, friends, family, and coworkers.

All to run 26.2 miles… that I HAD SIGNED MYSELF UP FOR.

I will recount my training and how I got here in a later post, but let’s dive in to race day.

The BIG Day

When we started, I was filled with so much nervous energy. David, my boyfriend, who was running his first half marathon (!), seemed… tired, and was probably doubting why he was dating a girl who runs so much. But as we hit mile 1.5 another fellow ambassador joined up with us and kept us light, happy, and positive. (Matthew, if you’re reading this, you are the BEST running partner.) He said, “Hi” and “Thank you” to everyone on the sidelines. It was amazing, and fun, and David was killing it.

At mile 5-6(ish), I looked across the street and saw Luke Kuechly sitting alone under a tree watching us runners pass by. He was trying to be discreet, but I’m literally his self-proclaimed biggest fan, so I could spot him a mile away if I needed to. When I said, “David that’s Luke Keuchly!” David also looked over, and Luke realized we knew who he was, so he hid himself under his hat, and I was mildly offended. But it made running up Providence Rd. much more enjoyable.

At mile 9, both David and I had to use the Porta Pottys, which was terribly disgusting, but when duty calls…

And that’s when David hit his wall. The next four miles were a lot of, “YOU CAN DO THIS. YOU ARE SO STRONG.” And him telling me to keep going, but no way was I leaving him behind. We’d come this far together, we were finishing this half together.

He fought through the pain and pushed past the wall. I left David at the 13 mile mark, as he broke off to finish his half marathon, and then I started crying, because Y’ALL HE RAN HIS FIRST HALF MARATHON AND I’M SO PROUD OF HIM.

But then I couldn’t breathe, so I had to stop crying and let him finish, and I thanked God for giving us the strength to get through and for a man who would literally run a half marathon to support me running my marathon. (LADIES, FIND YOU A MAN WHO RUNS FOR YOU.)

The Second Half

At mile 14 I was blatantly aware of the fact that I was now running alone and that I had to run ANOTHER HALF MARATHON.

By the grace of God, I ran into a fellow runner friend, Tim, who was out there supporting all of his fellow runner friends. He joined up with me and ran me up a hill and then took this picture of me. (All I could do was smile, because I had learned crying was a bad idea.)

As we were passing a cop, he asked, “How are you feeling?!” To which I replied, “I can’t feel my legs!” And he said, “That’s okay!” And I thought he was crazy, and the cop laughed, but it helped me understand that I wasn’t going to die. And that was reassuring.

After Tim left, I muddled through NoDa (a neighborhood in Charlotte) and everything hurt, but I kept smiling, because turning around wasn’t an option and I’d made it this far, DANG IT.

At mile 16, I was moseying along and looked over to the side walk to see one of my colleagues screaming and cheering me on. I had NO IDEA she would be there. Clearly, because this was my reaction when I saw her:

After I hit mile 20, I was watching in disbelief as the miles ticked by far quicker than I’d ever anticipated. Because, and I was warned about this from friends during my training, once you hit 20, what’s six more miles? (I know, crazy talk, but it turned out to be true.)

During the entire race, I was connected to the app, RaceJoy, which my friends and family were also on and following me through my run. Those following can send runners “cheers.” Sometimes they’re silly little quotes, sometimes they’re personalized, and sometimes they’re songs. When you’re running a marathon, I quickly learned, you get very emotional. Over everything. So, each time I heard the Star Wars theme song sent from my sister or the Fight Song, by Rachel Platton, pause my own music, I held back tears, because even from afar, I was being cheered on… and I kept reminding myself, “I AM A FIGHTER. THIS IS MY FIGHT SONG.”

A Reminder That I Always Need Jesus

At mile 21, there was a woman slightly behind me who started yelling, “COME ON JESUS, I NEED YOU RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE MY STRENGTH. COME ON CARRY ME THROUGH.” So, I turned around and said, “I FEEL YOU GIRL. I NEED HIM TOO.” And she smiled, and carried on yelling to Jesus, and I thought, “This is what running a race is really all about. It’s about pushing ourselves mind, body, and soul to the point where we literally cry out to our God.”

When I got to mile 23, the thought crossed my mind that, “I’VE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE! I HAVE NEVER RUN THIS FAR… EVER.” And let’s be honest. How many times in our adult lives can we honestly say we’re doing something we have never done before? We get stuck in our routines and sometimes forget that there’s a whole world out there of things we’ve never experienced.

The Final Push

At mile 24(ish), a man on the sidelines yelled to me, “Are you a pacer or an ambassador?!” And I thought, “My shirt literally says AMBASSADOR in all caps and it’s bright yellow…” But I smiled and said, “Ambassador!” And he said to the guy behind me, “You gonna let that ambassador beat you?!” And the man behind me groaned, and I thought, “Thank you sir for that vote of confidence,” and sped up a little.

Then my two saving graces came upon me. Casey, a dear friend of mine, ran back to find me after pacing the second half of the marathon. When I saw her, not surprisingly, I started crying. My knee was giving me a lot of trouble and I was in a lot of pain. But we were so close and I wasn’t stopping.

As we slowly moved along, I ran into another wonderful friend of mine, Margaret. This was, again, was a moment I wasn’t expecting. She starting yelling and screaming, AND THEN started running with Casey and me for about a half mile. Not to be cheesy, but I literally had two angels, one on each side, guiding me through.

Mile 26

That darn knee locked up in mile 25 and Casey continued to remind me of how close and how strong I was. So, I fought through the pain, and finally, FINALLY, I began to see the finish line. As I approached, all I could think was, “I DID IT. I ACTUALLY DID IT. THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW.” And then I heard the cheers from friends and family and… now I’m crying again.

I crossed at the 4:32 mark.

I ran a marathon.

Thank You

I couldn’t have done it without YOU. And I couldn’t get over the amount of love and support I received, so much of which I wasn’t able to fit into this blog post. I felt so heard, so loved, so cared about… all for something I had signed myself up for. But that’s the running community, for you. It’s the most loving and supportive group of people, from all walks of life.

If you’ve been toiling with the idea of running. Do it. If you need help getting started. Reach out.

I started this blog because running changed my life, and even though I’ve been running for years now, it continues to mold me into who I am.

I love you all.

Thank you for following along.