4:53:56

Before...

During...

Gettin' some love from our fans!!!

Mile 26.1...I can see the finish line!!!

And after the race! Check out that sweet medal!!

We did it!!! No doubt in my mind we were going to finish, but at 4 hours and 53 min!??!! Crazy!! I beat my Houston Marathon 4 weeks ago by 5 min! Adam did GREAT!! His first marathon, and to finish in under 5 hours...AWESOME!!!

Ok, let me walk you through this one....we start off strong, feeling good, for about 1/2 a mile when the hills began! HA Seriously, hills were everywhere throughout the course. It was fun at the beginning, different and new terrain, but after about 10 hills within only 2 miles, it got old fast!! Adam handled them like a champ! I think he secretly training in Austin or something because for the first 13 miles he was cruising through the hills no problem! Adam's parents, fiance Courtney, brother and sister-in-law, sister and brother-in-law, friends Joe and Jenny, and Blake were all there to support us along the way. Whether it was a few of them at miles 6 and 12, or everyone at mile 21 and the finish line, each one of them are greatly appreciated by the two of us. We found ourselves talking more than we thought we would, thank goodness for my training runs in Oklahoma with Sara where we talked the entire time!! Adam and I continued to be amazed at the complete strangers along the course encouraging us and cheering us along. They were all amazing! We started to make eye contact with most of them and thank them while we were on our way! To have family and friends there was even more special. The support and encouragement from those we love is so important, and none of them will know really how much they meant to us for being there. Ok, back to the course, at mile 6, our support team missed us because we were running like lightning speed! ha When we saw them at mile 12, I definitely threw on a smile to pretend it was awesome, but what came out of my mouth was contradicting to my face, "this is hard," is what came out without even thinking when I saw Blake!! Quick kisses to Blake from me, and Courtney from Adam, and we were off to conquer the 2nd half! From miles 13-15 I was struggling big time! The hills were playing a huge part, but mentally I was checked out! Thankfully Adam was there to encourage me. After a few sports jelly beans and a few packs of GU, I was back in the game! Miles 18-24 flew by! We talked and found ourselves surprised at how fast each mile came and went! Adam's knee started to hurt around mile 21. We were so excited about this! Usually it would hurt on training runs at around mile 6, could you imagine how awful the rest of the race, 20 miles, would have been had it started like usual?! It was my turn to return the favor of encouraging words. I am so thankful that we each hit our low points at different times. We made a few adjustments and just kept shuffling along, literally!! The hills were still insane the second half but not as many as the first, but maybe equally as intense. The end was fast approaching and we were pumped!! We passed by so many supportive people, and finally the finish line was in site! We saw the happy and tearful faces of Adam's family, our friends and Blake, and it gave us just what we needed to push through the final steps!!

I am so proud of Adam! He did great throughout the entire race!

Thank you for all of your sweet thoughts and prayers, we needed them and they definitely helped!