I finish my very first Marathon!  Wow, when they say it’s a mental game, it really is.  

I started strong.  And still felt strong when I reached 13 miles and though “Oh I’m doing wonderful, this is going to be easy”.  I should have kept my mouth shut.  What is the first rule of running a race, “do not wear clothing or eat anything that you have not trained already for”. Well I just had gotten new pairs of socks and of course never used them during my training.  They were causing blisters on my bottom toes.  It was killing me.  The great thing about Disney is that they had medical stops like every 5 miles.  But NO I needed to continue on.  Once I reached 20 miles I could not take it anymore I stop at the medical stop and got some bandages for my toes.  Now try to run with bandages?  Not good.  So I tried to ignore it.  At the 22 mile mark my thighs started cramping so bad, I kept trying to rub them to see if it helped. And then realized that we were going into another park I was getting frustrated with myself.  I kept saying “I’ve trained for this, I knew that I can run 20 miles easily”. “What is going on with me”.  

I never realized what a mental run it really was.  I tried to focus on my music, went trough what I needed to get done for the week, started scolding myself.  It was hard and nothing was working.  

By the time I reached the 23 miles mark I was walking and Jogging.  At the 24 mile they were giving chocolate candy.  And what did I just say about eating or wearing something that you have not trained with?  Oh, and did I tell I mentioned I had 2 bananas before, that they were giving away.  Well guess what, once I put that Chocolate in my mouth I realized what a big mistake it was.  It did not sit well in my stomach.  

Once I reached 25 mile mark I started running as fast as I can.  OMG the chocolate almost killed me.  I cross the finish line and found the nearest trash can and let loose if you know what I mean.  

But, got my medal and said I will never do this again.  

Now it’s 2 months later and I’m thinking maybe it was not that bad.  I might do this again without the new socks, banana and chocolate candy and a new mental game plan.