I have mentioned my marathon training before on the blog...so I must include the finish to all of that training. A few weeks ago I ran the Nashville Country Music Marathon with my husband and several other relatives. We had a great time visiting Nashville and a great time running. Everyone came home with a PR (that's runner lingo for personal record - best time). My husband and I finished the race in 4 hours, 26 minutes, 30 seconds (his official time was 4:26:31, so I really beat him by 1 second).
This marathon was large as far as marathons go...5,000 running the full and 25,000 running the half-marathon. To help deal with all of those people, they have corral starts. The elite runners get to start first, then the next fastest runners, and on down the line. We were in corral 10 of 31 and it took us 17 minutes to cross the start line. Here is a photo of our corral starting. (photos courtesy Jonathan Gabis)
I'm on the right (number 10211) with Jon right behind me and Stephanie right behind him. My dad is in the bright green shirt, getting ready to hand us jelly beans (Jelly Belly Sport Beans - the only way to make it through a marathon). I think this is at about mile 18 or 19.
My hubby taking the beans.
The group of runners. Those of us with black ribbon medals ran the full marathon and those with red ribbons ran the half. The pink signs my mom made to cheer us on. Those infamous pink signs have been to several marathons now and are a blessing to see when you are out on the course. My dad was holding one up near the finish and we could see it a good quarter mile away. It gives you a little boost of energy and keeps you going, although, my husband did complain that it seamed like it was never getting any closer.
Jon and I did have a pink sign, but it was with one of our cheerleaders at the time of the photo. Jeremy registered to run at the last minute, so we had to make an impromptu sign.
