Finally done

I am finally done. Philly was great. I finished in 4:17 - a time I am SUPER happy with. My goal time was 4:15, so to finish right near there - I was thrilled. The race was good overall. The weather was much better then Chicago - mid 40's and even misted at times. Didn't rain enough to truly get me wet. I was feeling good for almost the entire time. At Mile 17, Kiernan jumped in and ran with me, which was a nice pick me up. Then Dave jumped in and ran with me until 21. It was after that that it started to get really hard. I had never run that hard for that long before and my body was aching. 21 was definitely my worst mile. Right before Mile 22, I saw Coach Sandy and Krista cheering on the sidelines. They jumped in and ran with me to 26. They were awesome. Kept me moving, would run in front of me if it was windy, ran ahead to get water for me. It was HUGE help in those last 4 miles and definitely kept me moving. Then, at mile 25.5, Coach Steve H and Melka also jumped in and ran with me. I had my own entourage (I hope some got a picture of it!). They all jumped out right at 26 and left me to finish. It was so great crossing the finish line! Finally felt like I had run a race on my terms and was so proud.

I like our medals a lot (I'll post a picture of it soon) and didn't remove it the entire day. So glad its finally done!

I am definitely sore today, but not as bad as after Chicago. Just taking it easy today and plan on treating myself for the week :)