Newport Marathon

Eden and I have been training for 18 long weeks. We saw all our hard work end on May 30 in the Newport Marathon. It was really fun to follow the same training plan as Eden. Each week we would email each other about how our training was going. It was amazing how similarly our training went. We ran most of our runs at about the same pace so it was looking like it was going to be a fun run. Eden had initially said she would come out by herself. Then Jarrett wanted to come out with her. Pretty soon the kids were coming too and it turned into a family affair. Eden and her family got here on Wednesday. Eden had had a mishap with the neighbors' dogs before she left Maryland. She ended up having an infection on the top of her foot, right where her laces would be. It looked pretty nasty and was pretty painful for her. We went to the instacare Thursday afternoon and found out that she needed antibiotics. We were worried that her foot would really bother her for 26.2 but she was determined to race.
We left Friday for the coast. It was a long, crowded trip out to Newport. The kids were pretty well behaved, although they serenaded us with a little ditty that Ashton made up called "Ashton and Marin". By the end of the car trip, Jarrett was ready to jump out the window if he heard any more of that song. Andrew couldn't resist singing it though.
We went to race headquarters and got our packets for the race. Eden and I are in the same age category so I was looking for an edge to do better. I thought if I entered the Athena division (if you weigh over 145 lbs.) that I could potentially do better. I asked the lady if I could be weighed in. She wrote my number down, set the scale to 145 and told me to step on. I thought that with my clothes, a fleece, and shoes that I might be close. The scale did not budge and she told me to come back after I had eaten dinner and maybe I could be entered in the Athena division. Well, as Kevin was looking up race results, it turns out they kept me in that division, although I didn't make the weigh in.
Eden and I both were a little tense the afternoon before the race. Eden had a string of bad luck that included dropping two batteries out of her camera, right into the ocean as we were watching the sea lions. She was beginning to wonder if she was going to have any luck on her side at all. We both got a decent night's sleep, which can be unusual before a big race.
We got up and were ready to had to the start Saturday morning at 6:30 am. Kevin took us to the start. It is a pretty small race--there were less than 700 runners. There looked like a lot of seasoned marathoners there. There were two men who were running their 100th marathons and another that was well into the 200s. It was pretty impressive. We were anxious for the start of the race. It took about 30 seconds for us to cross the start line after the gun was sounded. We had decided that barring anything unforeseen we would run together. We were going to take it easy for the first half of the race and hopefully pick up the pace towards the end. It is a beautiful course that follows the Yaquina Bay. It is pretty isolated though. There is not much in the way of crowd support except at the turn around (15.5 mile mark) and at the finish. It was nice to have Eden for company. We were both feeling pretty good. Her foot was holding up pretty well. Newport Marathon is billed as a flat marathon, although we came to find out that from the turn around on, it is a gradual uphill. From mile 25-26 it is a pretty significant uphill with the last .2 miles finishing downhill. We stayed right on pace for the first 17-18 miles, maybe even longer. At about 20 miles, we slowed pretty considerably. We wanted to finish between 4:15 and 4:30. We ended up finishing in 4:28:55. It felt really great to cross the finish line. We ran the whole thing, except for the aid stations, which we walked through to stay hydrated. We both got emotional as we got close to the finish. It was really nice to have our families there. Norm and Marilyn drove out for the day just to see us cross the finish line as well. We appreciated all the support, especially from the kids who were great cheerleaders. What an amazing thing. We are already planning to race another marathon and beat our time. I guess we have the bug.