As many of you know by now, I ran my second full marathon this weekend in the Twin Cities. It was a long journey to get here, and lots and lots of miles were completed in preparation. Training went really well, and other than my hamstring giving me some issues every now and again, I was feeling really strong and confident I was going to do so much better this go around than Fargo last year.

Well today came and I was ready to get it done! I was so anxious last night that I’m pretty sure I saw every hour on the clock. I did not sleep well. But whatever! We walked to the start line and it already felt a little a little warm outside, so I had a feeling it was going to be a warm run.

My brother and his girlfriend Hannah came to the start and we were able to find them and get a pic before the race began.

My plan was to stick with the 4:35 pacer for as long as I could, and if I felt good enough to go faster, then I could later on. Well, there were so many people who apparently had the same idea that I tried to distance myself from the small crowd that huddled around the pacer. I didn’t want to be elbow to elbow the ENTIRE time. I knew he was trying to hold a 10:29 per mile pace and that’s what I tried to do too.

I fluctuated quite a bit. The first half felt really really good. I tried to keep my pace slower than 10 minute miles, but faster than 10:30. I tried really hard not to push myself too hard too soon.

We passed the halfway mark and I was still feeling good. It felt like it went fast, and yes my legs were feeling a bit tired, but that was expected at this point.

Around mile 15, I caught up to Jason and was excited to see a familiar face. I went right by, said good job and kept going strong.

Then I hit a wall at MILE 16. If you’ve ever run a marathon before, you know this is really early to be hitting a wall. I still had 10 miles left and wasn’t sure how this was going to go. I kept running, but I slowed down significantly. Pretty soon the pacer went by and I couldn’t even keep up. I thought to myself, ”who cares? your only goal was to run the whole thing. You’re still on track.”

Kept pushing through until mile 19 when my hip started hurting so bad I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep going. I finally had to give up my goal and walk because the pain was so intense. A volunteer saw me limping and asked if I was okay, and I just burst into tears and said ”I honestly don’t know!” He pointed out the medical tent wasn’t far ahead if I needed to drop, and at that point I was seriously considering it.

I called my dad with tears rolling down my face and the first thing I said was, ”would you be mad at me if I quit?” And then I started sobbing harder and hyperventilating cuz I was so worked up. My dad talked me off the edge and said even if I walked the entire rest of the race, I would feel so much better than if I decided to quit. I put too much time and effort into this race to give it up. And I’m glad he said that because that’s what I needed at that moment.

I walked a lot more than I wanted to, but holy cow, I just couldn’t run for long periods of time any more. My body was done.

Shortly after mile 20, Jill and Jason caught up to me and they were both struggling as well. We ran/walked together and encouraged each other to keep going. We even had to haul Jill to the side of the road twice because she got a few charlie horses. We were all ready to be done!!

So we gritted through seven miles of alternating running and walking and let me tell you, it was brutal. My stomach was getting queazy, my hip was not feeling better at all, and it was hot. It was a bad combination.

But we freaking made it!! We crossed that finish line and crossed another off the list. I can safely say I won’t be doing another anytime soon, and I may be sticking to half marathons for the near and probably distant future too. 😊

Glad I had all my WARC family, as well as Dan texting me encouraging words throughout the whole race, to help me get it done. It truly takes a village!

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger