Boston Marathon 2012

What an experience! I had no idea that it would be such an emotional journey for me. When I was in high school and first really learned about marathons I thought I want to do that and have never really looked back. And it seems from that point on I really wanted to qualify for Boston. I ran my first marathon at age 18 and missed qualifying by 5 minutes. I was pretty bummed, but didn't think too much of it. Well almost 10 years later,5 more marathons, 2 babies, a few moves....I finally qualified and was so excited. At that point I wasn't really sure if I would actually run Boston but was happy to know that I could. I got pregnant soon after I qualified. Luckily I learned that you are actually elligible to run for 2 years. When it came time to register I almost missed that as well. Luckily I got a little nudge and got it done. Then came the lovely appendix fun of Thanksgiving and I again worried that maybe this wasn't gonna happen. But I had a great doctor and tons of support from family. I was nervous when I started running again because it felt like I was starting from zero, but with a lot of hard work it all came back to me. My parents, my sister, Isaac, and Mia came along for the fun. We arrived in Boston on Tuesday night before the race. We had almost a week before to see lots of sights. We saw the city itself and a lot of close day trips nearby. We were in something like 5+ states in the week we were there. The first few days were very cold so I went and bought some gloves and a headband to be prepared...only to have a major flip. The last couple of days before the race the organizers were strongly recommending people not run the race because of the forecasted heat. Well, that wasn't an option for me. It did play with my head a little bit though. I had to try and not think too much about it. The actual race has over 20,000 runners in it. There were many, many buses to take everyone to the starting line and then I had an almost 2 hour wait before I actually ran. It was pretty warm before we even started. I started somewhere in the middle. It did take almost 5 minutes to actually get to the starting line! When I first took off and thought about what I was doing...it made me cry. I literally would get choked up whenever I stopped and thought about what I was doing! This is one amazing race. There were spectators the entire way. From start to finish! They were so supportive with water, oranges, hoses, etc. There were some pretty entertaining ones with funny signs. So, it didn't take more than about 5 miles for me to realize this was going to be a different race than I was used to. I had to drink as often as possible and dumped water on myself often. My pace naturally slowed as well. At one point I wasn't sure how it would all go and how my body would hold up. Soon after that I found my rhythm and called Isaac. I told him I realized I could finish the race, but it was gonna be ugly! I had really hoped to run faster than I had done before, but when all was said and done I felt so happy to have just finished. I was thrilled with how I handled "Heartbreak Hill." I kept thinking in my head, I will know when we are at it, but is this it? I kept thinking this can't be it...but it was. I conquered "Heartbreak Hill!" I was a little sad that I didn't run faster, but as I saw many others struggling and having to be helped my the medics, I felt like I did my best with no problems. There will be another race to run and I am just so happy that I got to experience it. Here are some pictures from the race: http://www.marathonfoto.com/index.cfm?action=site.login&RaceOID=12902012S1&LastName=DRAXLER&BibNumber=15745&spMAILINGID=36549661&spUserID=MjE3NDc2NTQ4MDQS1&spJOBID=140707688&spREPORTID=MTQwNzA3Njg4S0