Well everybody, my blog is late this weekend because I wanted to write about my marathon in Fargo, and let me tell you: it was quite the experience. I wanted to remember something from every mile, but that’s a lot of miles and a lot to remember. Plus, at one point, it was hard to focus on much else other than how much it hurt lol.

Anyway, when I woke up this morning I was fully expecting to have a meltdown. The morning of my first half, I broke down crying because I was so nervous and scared I wouldn’t be able to do it. I thought for sure the same thing would happen for a full! But I woke up feeling ready to go do it, and mark this off my list!

The start of the race was the best. We were in the Fargo dome, the music was pumpin loud, and it was just a super cool experience. I decided to start by the 4:35 pacer, and we were talkin for a moment before the start. She was completing her 115th marathon this morning!!! I told her it was my first and she said she was excited to share the milestone with me. Now I just have to do 114 more to catch up with her right!?

The first ten miles of the race were fantastic. There were lots of cheerleaders and good music on the side of the road, we had a small herd gathered around the 4:35 pacer, including my parents and Jill. We were laughing and getting to know each other and it was super fun. I did run ahead around mile 9 so I could use the restroom and be able to catch back up with them easier afterward. We decided to name this guy, Grant, our honorary family member because he had this amazing cheer squad following him around the course and every time we went by, we felt like they were cheering for us too! He said he was happy to share his family with us for the day. 🙂

My knees really started to bug me around the halfway point. I remember telling my mom that I was a little worried how much they were hurting already, since we still had another half marathon to go. She told me to listen to my body and if we had to walk we would. But I pushed through, and my parents and I ended up pulling away from the pacer little by little. I didn’t learn until around mile 21 that the pacer ended up stopping for a bit because she had gotten sick. But more on that later.

Around mile 18, my dad’s legs started spasming, and he had to walk for a bit. I was still feeling good, so I kept going. After the race, my parents told me they thought I would just leave them in the dust at this point as I was still going strong ahead of them. This was a long part of the race, as I was spread out from most other runners, there weren’t a lot of cheerleaders at this point, and so I was basically running alone until mile 23.

Everyone I’ve talked to that has run a marathon tells me they hit a wall at some point. I ran right by mile 20 still feeling decent and was thinking “man, I haven’t hit this wall yet, I’m doing great!” But it hit me on mile 22. I kept trying to tell myself that I only had four more miles, but after running that far already, even four felt like too many more.

The last 5K of the race was brutal. I had to walk/run quite a bit but no matter what, it just hurt. Everything hurt. And even though I was stopping at every water stop, I was getting dehydrated. My tongue would feel like cotton by the time I got to the next one. My parents caught back up to me at this point and helped me get in, but holy cow, I was seriously wondering if I was going to make it. Our pacer caught back up to us around the last mile and told me that even though she wasn’t able to get us in on the pace, she was going to make sure I made it in.

I was incredibly irritable at this point, so even though I really appreciated her encouraging words, at the same time I was wishing she would just let me die in peace. 😂 because that last mile was the longest frickin mile of my life. I swear we would have gone a half mile at least, but all the spectators were like “one more mile!” For what felt like way too long. But as soon as I saw the dome, I knew we were almost done so I kicked it in and made it in a time of 4:45. I didn’t really have a time goal since it was my first one, but I secretly wanted to break 5 hours, and I did it!! It was a long, long bitch of a race. But I accomplished something today! And I’m super proud of myself, as well as all the other WARC runners who ran the full and the half today. We all made it in one piece and will live to see tomorrow!!

Been eating and napping ever since, and even though my legs are sore, I’m feeling pretty good. Believe it or not, but my left wrist is actually what’s hurting the most right now. My dad said I retained some fluid in it during the run and it’s VERY sore right now. Hoping some ice will help. But otherwise I’m officially a marathoner!!!! It’ll be a long long time before I ever even think about doing another one, but I won’t say it’s totally out of the question. 😉

Here’s some shots of the finish!

Thanks to everyone who reached out over the course of the weekend wishing me good luck and congratulating me! It was not an easy feat, but I never thought I’d be able to do it. Now I know I can do hard things!!

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger