Philly Marathon in brief...more to follow

I have never had so many requests for a blog, EVER!

Please know that this is not the full blog.  That will come when I can upload pics and all and detail the events of the weekend.  Most of you do not also follow me on Twitter, so you have no idea what an amazing Marathon weekend this has truly been.  For the few of you who do follow me on Twitter, well...you can definitely wait!

In a nutshell, the Philly Marathon was a HUGE success (for me)!  I trained and trained and it paid off.  As I went back to my times from all of my previous marathons (7), I looked at my times and reflected on where I had my tough spots.  My best time was still my first marathon at 4:54.  (I thought it was 4:44, but I guess I dreamt that.)

I know that my issues lie somewhere around mile 20 - the point at which I had trained.  Everything after that seemed impossible, year after year.  I would be on target to do well, but always fell apart - often taking nearly 90 mins to complete the last 6+ miles.  Pathetic!  So just know, 26.2 is freakin' hard.  If it was easy, more people would do it, right?!

Today, the stars were aligned and I got past my mental strife and pushed through a great and tough course to complete in 4:20:36 (9:56 overall pace).  If you want all the details, you'll have to wait another day or so.  But know that when I started training for this marathon, I never dreamed that I would not only reach my goal of a 4:30 marathon, I surpassed it.  

I have to thank so many people, but especially Dennis and Lynette who stood at the finish line waiting for me to finish.  Trust me when I tell you the were thousands upon tens of thousand of spectators at the finish.  I could not believe I spotted them both standing mere feet from the end.  It was an amazing moment for me, and Dennis caught it all on video.  I hope I can share that finish with all of you, soon.  

Also, Anne, Loretta, and Matt were following me closely on their phones and were posting texts, FB posts and emails about my amazing times throughout.  It was amazing to read their incredible enthusiasm when I finished.  There was so much to read I could barely keep up and respond.  

4:20 still brings me to tears.  All I can say is, "Finally."