VICTORY

Well, I did it, we all did it! We finished the marathon, so it has been done! And done by some bad ass North westerners I might add! And the next most important piece of information is that no one got hurt. But yes, it hurt.

I have to say, I am pumped bc I am here. I am psyched to sit here, on my couch, where I sit every night when I do my blogs. I am sitting extra proudly tonight, at my laptop, with my glass of red wine, as I do my pinnacle blog. The one where I tell you I ran this thing and I kicked it's ass, and it kicked my ass. But I kicked it's ass last! (Mulcahy)

The rundown on the race is this: It was rough. But nothing short of amazing. It is a very scenic course for the middle part of the race. Nine miles are run on a gravel trail called the tank trail. This is where it got real interesting for me. The race starts off with all of us together. Most of my TNT running mates and Mark, Talin, Tika, Dave "the brewman" Brewer, Bonzai and myself. Great weather to start, high
50's and cloudy. At 8am we are off. It was so exciting taking off with everyone. I mean everyone is so fricking pumped! I remember Mark being so pumped, I really enjoyed the adrenalin rush of my first marathon. Unofficial numbers say about 1,600 total for the full marathon. Kinda small, which is so great in this environment. And it is almost entirely TNT by the way, and the support from the crowd was top notch. Just a sea of purple jerseys everywhere.

So we are at mile 3 or so and it starts raining, then it starts to rain pretty good. It didn't last too long though. And as I am sure this is to no one's surprise, Bonnie and Talin are not seen again by me after around mile 3. It was cool seeing that happen though, they were so ready to rip it up. Everyone of us were pumped. My achilles for this race would be the gravel trail, which I already know bothers my knees. I knew this going in, no surprise here. I do not like that name at all by the way, tank trail. But especially after I tell you what it did to this old boy's already achey knees. That trail shredded up my knees like swiss cheese. When I say 9 miles could never again seem so long, I truly mean that.

I do not want to come across as negative here, this whole race was the best experience for me, in large part bc it was so hard. I just want you to know what it was like out there for me. Dave decided to hang back with me, thank God! The picture up top is of Mark, Dave and I entering the tank trail at mile 7. I am so glad looking at that picture (our unbelievable Coach Joe took) bc I can now remember how pumped I was heading into the tank trail, oh if I could have stayed that way for those 9 miles. It is now also known as the trail of death to me. But going into it, there was music pumping and you drop down what was like a small driveway to get onto the trail. This was the only music of the day, the song we heard was killer! It was some kick ass 70's jam. There was an aid station there, and the three of us stopped and were all dancing while drinking and eating our oranges. We were so pumped up! From this point on to mile 8 would be the last time the three of us would run together. We got to 8 and we cut Mark loose. My knee is hurting so bad just after the one mile that I know this is going to be a long run for me. Again, thank God for Dave. The next 8 miles on the gravel trail were just brutal. It is scenic at least, but I had to run for one minute and then have to walk for a few. Picture this for 9 miles, and now Dave is doing it with me. His knees hurt too, but he pulled back for me. Team.

We suffer through 9 miles of this and come out of mile sixteen all excited to be back on concrete. But before we left the trail, we did get to see a baby moose. I guess we ran right by a bear and baby cubs, never saw it. I had my sights set on concrete. Dave and I leave mile 17 and I am like, hey I can run again. Dave is like, me too. So we start hauling, flying by people. We must have run around a 9 minute mile, felt like a 5 minute. We saw Jenn at mile 18 and stopped to say hi. We then realized we had to slow it down anyways, we still had 8miles left.

So the pain in my knee was gone til about mile 20 or so. God that was an amazing 3 miles. Dave and I would high five the rest of the trip over our mile 17, good times, good times! At mile 20 we catch up to our teammate Debbie. We were pumped and she was so psyched bc she was running solo. She had been solo since I last ran a bit with her at like mile 5. We finished the race together. At around mile 22 the knee is killing. I can only describe the pain as running with a badly sprained knee. We all decided we would cross the finish line hands locked in with our arms in the air, as a team. It was unbelievable to finish like that! My official time was
5:51:02. So I broke 6 hours, thank God. No records broken here.

Crossing the line was the best feeling ever. I am so glad I did this and that I did it with the other people involved. I am lucky to have been able to be a part of something so big, and it made you realize how much bigger this whole thing is than you. Everyone involved has a story. Mine was we just honored my dad in the best way possible. Thank you all for reading and keeping me focused and pumped up throughout this whole experience! And once again thank you for all the support and for being such a huge part of this with me. Cheers!

Sean