So I did it. I finished the race.

I got there at about 545am this morning and parked at the Silver Strand State Beach then took a shuttle bus to the starting line at Sunset park in Coronado. There were A LOT of people there as it was a race for inline skaters, challenged athletes (in hand-propelled wheelchairs) and about 2800 runners. I had to wait around for a while for the start but it was kinda cool because I guess they were filming an IMAX documentary about some famous challenged athlete so they had to have a false start to that portion of the race so they could get his "stunt double" in a shot with him in front of everyone at the start.

The race itself was good. I kept my pace well pretty much the whole time. At about 9 miles it goes into a neighborhood in IB and then into the Naval Radio Station. That part was hard cause it was mile 9.5-12.5 and it was a loop so you have to repeat what you had just run. And there was a slight hill for part of it. I had only done 10 miles at once before so it was kinda crazy how after I got to about 11 miles my body just said "okay, i'm done." So I had to push myself a lot more to finish those last two miles. But I did it.

My goal was to finish the race in under 3 hours and I did it in 2 hr 48 min. I was happy with that time. Especially when you consider that before last March the most I had ever run at one time was 3 miles. So I am pretty proud of myself.

My friends Michelle, Marisa and Grant were waiting for me at the finish line with a sign that said on one side "YAY MARNIE YOU DID IT" and on the other side "NOW LET'S GO TAKE A NAP". It was really great to see familiar faces there and I am really happy that they made it down. They took a video of me finishing and a bunch of pictures which I will post when I get those from them.

Finally, David, thanks for the challenge. I definitely wouldn't have done this if it wasn't for you urging me that I could actually do it. As for whether I will do this again...don't ask me that today! ;)

Love you all! Thanks for your support!!