(warning: long report) Wow, what a weekend! Saturday morning, Alex P and I headed to Philly for our first marathon on Sunday, excited but also very nervous. This was the real test, THE race, the 26.2 miles.

Getting off the bus, we headed straight to the Expo to pick up our race packages and walked around. We went by Bart Yasso's booth but he wasn't there, so we proceeded to Back on My Feet to pick up our charity goodie bag. Proud to say that we managed to raise $690 for BOMF in less than 2 weeks! Many, many thank yous to our DM friends, Philip O. and Andy H. who donated and made this possible!! We met the founder, Anne Mahlum there and thanked her for a fantastic job with the organization and also took some pics with her.

At this time, we decided to go and check-in to our hotel and then go back to the Expo, just to meet Yasso, the man whose training plan we've been following for 4 months and possibly a big reason we could run our first marathon. We went straight to his booth and there he was! We were lucky, there was no line at all. We told him we've been following his 4 months training regime and thanked him for that. He signed the book that we bought. We spoke a little, he gave us some tips and we took some pictures with him which resulted in some laughs as Alex was way too tall and I was so short that the pictures looked funny. :) Almost as a proud parent, he sent us off with a hug, kiss and good luck. The experience was pretty awesome and we left floating on clouds.

Back at the hotel, we met up with a fellow DMer, Joe, who was also staying at the same hotel. It was great meeting him. Very cool guy and he gave us some last minute pointers what to expect. (Thank you Joe, and sorry for bombarding you with all the questions!) We decided to walk to the race together in the morning and with that we called it a night.

Race day. Woke up 4 am to take a shower, eat and get ready. At 6 am, we went to the lobby to meet Joe and another runner, Ellen and we all walked to the starting line. We parted ways soon to go to our corrals. On our way to the port-a-john, we met David N., also a fellow DM friend whose training we've been following! What a great coincidence! Was hoping to see him later at the DM meet up.

It was around 7:15 when our race started and I felt a little stiff after standing over an hour waiting in the cold. It started nice and slow and we had to weave through the crowd. I was worried, at first, to start too fast but after the 2nd mile, I realized I was running too slow! By the 3rd mile I started picking up a little and it was also here, that Alex and I decided to separate and run our own races. I felt great and my legs were fresh after a couple of days' of rest. At mile 11, I decided to have my first gel. Oops, bad move! Couple of minutes later, my stomach cramped up and it was hurting so badly that I had to stop and walk for for a while. Fortunately it went away and I was able to run again. That was my first and last gel. I had to rely on water and gatorade as fuel for the rest of my run. If this had happened at 13th mile, I might have thrown in the towel and called it quits. :(

Mile 13 to mile 26 was basically the same route, with a turnaround at mile 20, so it was pretty cool to see the elites running on the other side on their way to the finish. The uncool thing? I wish I was on the other side.

From mile 15 on, I just took one mile at a time, making a pact with myself that I could stop (if I needed to) after the next mile, making it my mantra, "Just one more mile...". There were times when I thought, "What in the world makes me think I can pull this off?!". Stopping at every water stop to drink and walk a little certainly helped and when I made that turn at mile 20 to go back where I just came from, I felt great and excited! The Eye of the Tiger was blaring, people were cheering and the weather was beautiful and adrenaline was high, but by mile 23, my quads started cramping and I stopped to massage them a little. Shortly after mile 24, I had to stop again and walk and massage. Then suddenly, I heard somebody scream my name. I turned around and there was Alex, running with a strong and determined stride! Like a drill sergeant, he yelled, "C'mon! Let's go. LET'S GO!" And so I went. We ran hard side by side a little over a mile. With probably only 1/2 mile left, I had to slow down and told him to go ahead. I stopped and drank my Gatorade and then took off to finish off this long race. I crossed that finish line with arms high, fists pumped and a big smile!

Thanks to Adam G., who organized a meet up among us DMers, we finished off an amazing day with food and beers with DMers Kristen F, Joe and a couple of more runners at Tir Na Nog. Very cool!

One of the lessons, I learned is to really stick with what you know. I only trained with gels once, maybe twice but yet, I took it in an important race like this. Adding to my nervousness, my body rejected it and it almost cost me the race. Other than that, I could not have wished for a better first Marathon!