Actually it should be noted that purple exists only on parts of my toes (the entirety of my feet aren’t a blackish bluish reddish color). It is just that the words feet, feat, and meet make for a much catchier title, don’t you think?! But if you look down at my feet, you do see purple; so I think it is fair to stick with what I have : ) Gracie’s story with the similar name had an end result that I could post a cute (non-stomach upsetting) picture of. Not so with me. Instead, I’ll just post the pre-purple “feet” feat pictures and tell the story of how I got mine.
I do have to say that I hesitated posting this at first because I didn’t want to come across as prideful. Yes, I am proud to have accomplished a high feat for once (most everything I post about me is on the low and humbling side.) I am just without the pride (make sense?). Especially because I didn’t meet my initial secret goal I had in mind when I set out to do this thing.
So what is this feat I feel proud but not prideful of??? My faithful readers (all five, maybe six, of you!) probably already know : ) But in case you stumbled across this post, I am excited to get to proudly (but not pridefully) announce that I ran my 1st full marathon! Yay for me!!
And for my sisters, they ran their first half!!
I know that I should have just set a first time goal of finishing (that would have been a noteworthy feat in and of itself), but I had to throw in a time goal to try to attain as well. And with too lofty of expectations, I set out to try to complete the run in less than 4 hours. But…
it didn’t quite happen that way. Boo : (
I came in about 5 minutes slower than I had hoped for. My completion time was 4:04:37.
Oh well, that just means there WILL be marathon #2 and then #3 and #4 and so on!!!
I can totally see why these are addicting!!
And with family there to support me, it certainly makes them all the more fun and the distance attainable!! As you can see, I had quite the enthusiastic fan club waving for me as I neared the 25 mile marker. After weeks and weeks of their own cheering-mommy-on “training” they were as ready for this day as I was. It was Rob who had helped them work hard to prepare for this event. When I would do my long training runs early on Saturday mornings (running around and around and around our neighborhood), he would load the girls up in the truck and head to the front of the subdivision to get doughnuts. They would first drive around to try and find me, hollering out “go mommy go!” when they spotted me. Then on their way back from their breakfast, they would do the same thing again, i.e., circle the streets in search of their mom and then give me that extra bit of energy with their sweet encouraging cheers. Well all the hard work paid off, because they certainly exceeded all my expectations. I was feeling miserable and my mind was quite loopy come those last several miles. But hearing their enthusiasm for me gave me that extra bit of determination and adrenaline I needed to push through the pain and exhaustion. Even some ladies that were running behind me let me know they benefitted from my girls. It was so great!!!!
So what, do you ask, is up with the color purple and my feet? Good question. Twenty six miles of having your toe nails being slammed back and forth against the inside tips of your shoes will do quite a bit of damage!! I went up a half shoe size after the last half-marathon I ran, but apparently I could have still spared some more room down there. I had been feeling something of discomfort in those last miles down in my toe area but wasn’t sure just what to make of it. But when the race was done and we finally made it back to the truck, I knew the blood seeping through both pairs of socks was not a good sign. I was certain that once I braved taking off my socks, I would lay eyes on something ugly. Sometimes I don’t like being right! Broken skin, blisters, and black toes and bloody toe nails – YUCK!! But it was all worth it – honest!! I will do this again and again. Especially in the winter when I have no need to wear sandals and paint my toes (by the way, I think it will be months before I actually have all 10 of my toe nails back to put polish on anyways…)
