Tuesday, December 13, 2011

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!


9 comments:

Tink said...

The Honolulu Marathon rules! So jealous you got to do it! If I ever do a marathon, that will be the one

Rachelle Q said...

Nice! I ran the 2004 San Diego RNR with Team in Training. The Honolulu one would have been nice:)
How is the Portland Marathon? I hear it's somewhat flat which tempts me to do it.

Julia said...

haha! ummmm yes. that is totally badass! both of those marathons sound so fun. i obviously need to run a marathon near a beach...sounds like the BEST recovery :) congrats on all your running accomplishments!

Laura said...

Great accomplishments! I'm hoping I can continue to get faster as I get older... congrats!

Jamie said...

Congratulations on your Marathoniversary!

Suz and Allan said...

Congrats! I've always thought HI would be a great place to run a marathon.

Tricia said...

So cool that your 41 year old self kicked your 28 year old self's ass in the marathon time!! Happy marathoniversary.

Teamarcia said...

Happy marathoniversary! What a cool first race. Was it hot as he'll though?

Lynette said...

My hubby and I eloped to Hawaii in 2003. I told him we should do that marathon as an anniversary trip as we haven't been back since. I, too, did my first marathon with TNT for Chicago back in 2000. Very memorable experience and life changing. But, I DID get the bug, although it was 7 years before another one. Congrats a better finish than any of my 5 fulls. But I plan to change that next year! 12 is my fave number, so 2012 will be the year. :)

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