My marathoniversary!

It's my marathoniversary!  13 years ago today I crossed the finish line at the Honolulu Marathon and became a marathoner.  

Honolulu Marathon 1998 - finisher!

I ran the race with Team in Training and raised money for the Leukemia Society in exchange for airfare and marathon entry into the race.  When I decided to sign up, it really was just a bucket list item that I wanted to say I accomplished.  I had always ran in shorter, local races, but had never done any distance racing.  I hadn't even run a half marathon before running this!

Team in training provided me with a training plan and I followed it until I got an over-use injury after an 18 miler, about a month out from the race.  I seriously didn't run a single time from November 1st until December 13th when I showed up for the race.  I think at the time I was honestly naive enough to not stress about it - now I would be FREAKING out about this, but I guess sometimes ignorance is bliss.  I really had no time goal and I was just running to finish - I ended up running a 4:24.  I walked straight from the finish line and sat in the ocean!

I can't post any pictures of the race itself because at the time I was too cheap to order them from the official race photographer - and my sister was there at the finish but she missed when I crossed the finish line because my nephew had to use the restroom!  So no race pix for me due to my frugality and my nephew's bladder!

We flew to Kauai the day after the race and laid around on the beach for the next 6 days.

I tell ya, if you're going to run a marathon, this was a nice way to recover!

My first marathon was a great experience, but it didn't really give me the marathoning bug that I've picked up later in life.  In fact, I didn't run another marathon until the 2009 Portland Marathon!  It is kind of cool that my 41 year old self kicked my 28 year old self's ass in finishing time, eh?  Yeah baby!