Race Results & Lessons Learned

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Before, we get started, if you haven’t entered the Lemony Stitch Christmas Banner Giveaway, be sure to click here to enter!  The giveaway runs through the end of this weekend only!

I finished!  

This past weekend was the St. Jude Memphis Marathon, which I had been training for since July. marathon-race-day-2014It was my second full marathon to attempt, the first being in October of 2013.

This was a BIG race (I heard 17,000 runners?) and it was so much fun being back in my hometown with all of the awesome crowd support.running4By far the best part of the whole experience was being able to run as a “St. Jude Hero,” which meant I raised funds for the children’s cancer research hospital.

In total, I was able to raise $1670 for the hospital, on behalf of my friends and their son Garrett who is a current patient at St. Jude (read more about Garrett’s story and why I chose to run this race here and here).running3Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to see Garrett or his family at the race, but I did catch this sweet photo his family posted on Facebook thanking all of the members of Team Garrrett.  It really was a huge honor to be able to participate in this fundraising.runUnfortunately, I didn’t meet my goal time; I missed it by a little over 20 minutes.  I did finish about 20 minutes faster than my first marathon time though, which I consider a good accomplishment.  It’s hard though to train so hard and so long for something then not be able to meet your goal.running1I had some family that came out to support me–my mom, dad, and my sister, who is with me in this photo. Seeing my family cheering for me on the course is what got me through to the end.

It was really tough to finish . . . not as hard as my first full marathon, but still really, really hard.  I think that to do well in a full marathon I am going to have to really up what I do to train, and pay a lot more attention to the little details of running (what I eat, weight training for stronger legs, correct running form, etc).  I’m not sure I’m ready to commit that much time and mental energy into it though quite yet!  So for now, I’ll stick to shorter races 🙂

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that this is what I felt like when I finally crossed the finish lineIMG_3849Haha!  Not very nice, huh?

Even though it was really tough, I’m still glad I ran it.  I know this may sound cheesy, but learning to endure through uncomfortable circumstances is probably the biggest thing that running distance races has taught me.

I really am an expert quitter.  I have a lifetime of practicing how to walk away from something when it gets too hard or inconvenient.  Training for and running these races, specifically the full marathon, has done so much to teach me what it looks like to persevere and endure, and how I am much, much stronger than I think I am.

So, now that it’s done, what’s next?  Well, I am pretty tired, so this week I am going to take lots of naps. Then, I am going to get going on my Christmas shopping and start doing some holiday baking with my kids. I am going to try and finish some furniture projects I have stored in my garage and get my booth ready for a complete re-do for the new year.

I may run a little bit too, because I really do enjoy it 🙂  But no more 26.2 milers for me for quite awhile.

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Steve Alexander

Thursday 11th of December 2014

GREAT job winner!

Linda @ Itsy Bits And Pieces

Tuesday 9th of December 2014

Good for you, Melanie! You did it! And for a very worthy cause!

JaNean Framstad

Tuesday 9th of December 2014

Congratulations on the long run, I cannot even fathom running that far, as matter of fact I don't think I could walk that far.

Ann Marie

Tuesday 9th of December 2014

Melanie, I am so impressed by your drive and courage. Congratulations on completing the marathon and helping Garrett. I want to let you know that I mentioned you in my blog post today. Here's the link: http://www.irisabbey.com/uncategorized/diy-christmas-banners/

teresa

Tuesday 9th of December 2014

That is an amazing accomplishment. I'm a fellow runner, but it has been many, MANY years since I ran that kind of mileage. i don' compete at all anymore, but just love to run. When it's good, it's an exhilarating sense of freedom. I'd say you did pretty well to improve your time by 20 minutes, and may have just set the bar too high. In any case, the main thing is you tried and did it. That's all Garrett and his family will see, I'm sure. Congratulations!