New blog name! New home blog...

So I've decided to ditch "run melissa run" and move my blog here:

Ak Girl on the Run

I feel as though this name has some meaning to me as "run melissa run" was a little generic.

PLEASE PLEASE follow me at my new spot!

Hope to see you there :)

My Shoe Dilemma (like whoa)

Alright. It’s about time I get down to business when it comes to my running shoes. Since running in Paris, I have experienced pretty severe pain in my right leg while running. I thought if I rested and gave my legs a break it would go away, but everytime I run, it comes back. I have self-diagnosed this pain (with the help from my exercise science major husband) as my IT band being really mad at me. That is as legitimate as any diagnosis I would receive from a sports medicine doc, right? Angry IT band? come on.

Anyway. I’ve decided to spend hundreds and buy tons of shoes try a few different kinds of shoes to see what works for me.
Here’s what I’ve bought over the past couple of days:


Shoe #1 - After the 5K last Saturday, I went to a local running store and was “fitted” for a new running shoe. I told the sales associate I was experiencing pain in mainly my right knee that spread up into my hip. She put me on the treadmill and recorded my feet as I ran and said I was mos def a pronator. I tried on several pairs of shoes and decided on these:

The Mizuno Wave Inspire 7


I also got some nifty insoles that cradle my heel and provide firm arch support. I ALSO got some SWEET pink knee high compression socks and a sports bra on clearance that has little birds on it.
SCORE.
So I got home later and walked around a little in the Mizunos. They felt big… really big. Probably because I normally wear a 6 and I bought a 7.5? Yeah. Whoops. I looked around online a little and saw that they carried the same shoe at REI, but in a nice aqua color. I also happened to have a pretty nice dividend at REI so I decided I’d go pick them up there and return the larger, yellower version of the shoe to the running store.
Shoe #2 - Mizuno in the blue color in a smaller, size 7

I was getting ready to leave REI but before doing so I decided to try on a pair of Nike’s I had been eyeballing.  Shoe #3 - The Nike Lunarglide +2

I did a little reading about the Lunarglide when I got home and it seems like it’s a good “minimalist” shoe with a little added support for pronation. Perhaps just the right balance I need?
 I’m having a really hard time going with a REAL running shoe, like the Mizuno, with its padding and support. I went from short distances in Vibram Five Fingers to longer distances in the Saucony Kinvara. The Kinvara is a great, lightweight minimalist shoe, but I think it’s a little too minimalist for my degree of pronation.

So now I find myself in a strange spot. I have my extremely minimalist “barefoot” style Vibram Five Fingers, the minimalist style Saucony Kinvara which aggravates my IT band after long distances, the still minimalist but with a little added support Nike Lunarglide, and the very supportive more like a real running shoe Mizuno Wave Inspire. I believe that extra padding and support could potentially lead to running injuries because I don't think it's necessarily a good thing to heal strike with a giant pillow/chunk of plastic under your foot. But I also don't feel, at this point, like I could run 10+ miles in FiveFingers either. I'm torn. Ohh geeee....Let the testing begin! On a side note, I got my shirt and bib in the mail today for the Susan G Komen "Race for the Cure" 5K this coming Saturday. I selected the smallest size shirt, a small, and later regretted it thinking that it may run small since they didn't offer an XS.



Yeah no. It's HUGE.



This weeks mission: Getting my shirt to shrink and hopefully finding a shoe that doesn't kill my knee.

Thanksgiving Point 5K Recap

Here’s what went down on 5K Saturday. The night before, I was cramming to get homework done and ended up staying up until 12:30. Reluctantly, I took a 2 hour nap after I got off work that same night so I figured I’d be okay the next morning to get up early for the race. I was supposed to meet my friend at her house at 7 so we could drive down to Lehi together and have plenty of time to deal with traffic since it didn’t start until 8. My plan was to wake up at 5 so I could shower, eat, and be ready to go by 6:45 without having to rush and risk forgetting anything.

At about 6:25, I wake up to Nick shaking me. He asks me what time I was supposed to get up, to which I reply “5:00” knowing it was way past that. And then the madness ensued. No time to shower or eat, I threw my running gear on, made a PB&J for the road, grabbed my bib and time chip, and jumped in the car.

Throughout the night, the weather decided to be AWESOME and it snowed. A lot. And it was cold. This is what it looked like in my neighborhood as I was driving to Christeen’s house:


And a shot of the Wasatch


So I made my way towards Christeen’s house, but I had only been there once before and I was coming in from the opposite direction. Needless to say I got lost. My iPhone has not been working as for some reason it can’t determine my current location at all and since all the street signs were covered with snow, I had no idea where I was. Finally around 7:30 I made it to Christeen’s and we raced down to Lehi.

Much to my surprise, we made it on time and minutes before the race start. It was cold, but the sun was out and had melted most of the snow on the course so it could have been a lot worse. We were soon on our way. I felt really good for the first mile despite getting a side cramp and having right shoulder pain (I cracked something in my shoulder a few years ago while snowboarding and I get pain in it from time to time). I made my way along the course and had my iPod blaring as per usual.

There was a tulip festival going on at Thanksgiving Point and I’m sure that had they not been covered with snow, it would have been a really pretty run. We went through a few of the gardens and along the road. It wasn’t a great course but there was a few inclines that made my legs burn.
Coming to the finish, there was a large crowd gathered but NO ONE was cheering. It was a little disappointing. I finished just barely under 30 minutes though, which was my goal so I was pretty happy.

Here’s what my Garmin recorded:

Map


Summary


Splits


The splits are kind of hard to read. My first mile was 8:22, which I think may possibly be my fastest mile ever, second was 10:12, third was 9:26, and then .19 was 1:55. I didn’t hit stop on my Garmin right away so the time differs from my actual chip time, which was 29:25.1. I finished 100th overall out of 521 people AND 5th in my age group, out of 78 people.



FRIGGIN PROUD OF MYSELF. 5th in my age group!! I think that’s a big deal. I know the competition wasn’t steep and it was just a normal little 5K, but it makes me feel pretty good about myself.

Here’s a picture of Christeen and I after the race



She puked a few times shortly after the start had some complications with her breakfast and finished a few minutes after me.

Here’s a picture of the medal and the shirt.



I have two medals now!! I friggin love these things. I can’t wait to collect more.


Marathon de Paris and Thanksgiving Point 5K


So my pain came back in my right leg so something must be done about this. It’s pretty frustrating to experience excruciating pain after only 3 miles. I honestly don’t know how I was able to finish 26.2. I’m going to try to go get fitted for new shoes and see if that helps or not.

I signed up for another 5K next Saturday. The Susan G. Komen “Race for a Cure” series is going to be in Salt Lake so I’ll get decked out in pink and be running for a good cause. My friend Stephanie will be in town because she’s graduating (LUCKY) so it should be a good time!

I’m hoping for sun this time. And warmth. And no pain.

Friday! 5K eve. *fist pump*

So, I clicked the Outlook icon on my desktop, scrolled through the new messages indicated in bold, and I came across this little gem: 
“Dear Melissa Strautins,

The Winged Goddess of Victory has spoken. From the 30,000+ registration entries we received, we’ve drawn the names of the lucky women who will get the chance to run in the 2011 Nike Women’s Marathon.

Unfortunately, your name was not one of them.”


LE SIGH.

So I didn’t get selected in the random drawing for the NWM. There is always next year, right?! I would sign up for it via Team in Training, but I honestly don’t have it in me right now to fund raise ever again.

So now what? What AM I going to do?

I still have the Thanksgiving Point 5K tomorrow! Yay! However, the weather looks like it’s not going to play nice and it’s probably going to rain or snow, which it’s currently doing right now. Good thing it’s just a 5K though and I can get out of there asap and back home to my bed do productive things.

Because I was not selected for the Nike Women’s Marathon, I embarked on a frantic internet search to find a new race to train for.

I must have something to train for. Otherwise it will not be done.

I found several local events that I may consider signing up for. I’ve decided that since my husband is in the military and we move around so often, it would be wise for me to try to participate in events in my area. When am I going to be in Utah again to run an event in Moab or Zion? Yep. Local races it is.

I drove to Lehi this morning before work to pick up my bib for the 5K tomorrow. This shirt is super cute. The neck is weird though…it’s kind of tall and baggy. So, that’s no bueno. But the shirt is cute so whatever.

I had previously considered running the half marathon instead but I’m a little relieved I chose the 5K not only because I’m still babying my legs, but because the shirt for the half was a really ugly orange color. Cute shirt? I feel as though I’m already a winner. After all, it’s all about the shirt. Right?

I also signed up for the Susan G. Komen 5K next weekend that I will be running with my friend Stephanie. I’m not sure if I will keep signing up for 5K’s or what at this point since I’d really like to find a longer distance event to do.

But before I do that, perhaps I should actually start training?

Maybe that’s a good idea?

Or perhaps I should figure out my schedule and incorporate some running somewhere?

YEAH, GOOD PLAN.

I’m having serious time issues with juggling work, school, my non-existent social life, and downtime with my husband. I just can’t figure out how to squeeze running into my daily routine. I work from 8:30-5, Mon-Fri and when I get off I normally have an assignment due because I procrastinate or I have to make dinner or do laundry or something along those lines. I’m taking online classes at Hawaii Pacific University to finish up my degree in Business Management, so most of my assignments are due midnight Hawaii time (3 AM Utah time). So I put them off until the last minute and frequently find myself staying up late.

Maybe I need to dedicate one whole weekend to try to get ahead in my classes so that way I have free time throughout the week and can do something physical?? I’m really starting to get frustrated with myself.

Not much of a running blog if I don’t do any running.

Wish me luck tomorrow! First 5K will soon be in the books.

On the horizon - My first 5K

I ran 2 miles today. With no pain! My first pain free run since the marathon. Even though I’ve only ran twice and a total of 5.5 miles since my 26.2 through the streets of Paris two weeks ago, I'm just proud I'm sticking with it. My run tonight was on my treadmill and I didn’t warm up or stretch, which is pretty normal for me. I wore my VFF Bikilas though, so that’s probably why I’m pain free. I have a funky strike with my right foot, so wearing normal shoes usually means pain. I'm planning on going and having another shoe fitting soon that will hopefully help and allow me to wear "real" running shoes. If I ran more in my VFF's, I'd probably be able to wear them for longer distances, but that is something I may experiment with in the future.



I’ll do a run on the street probably Thursday, cause tomorrow I have to get my hair did after work (priorities, duh).

ANYWAY.

I have a big event coming up on Saturday.

My first 5K.



How in the world did I sign up for/train/complete a FULL marathon before even doing a 5k?

I guess I just wanted my first race to be a big ‘un

My first race was pretty epic. I’ll probably never be able to top it. But to stay active and kind of start from the beginning, I signed up for a local 5K event and registered for the random draw for the Nike Women’s (half) Marathon in San Francisco in October.



I’m also kind of feeling weird about signing up for a half marathon when I’ve already done a full… BUT, since I did not perform so great during my first marathon, I figure I need to partake in some shorter distance events to really get addicted to running and get my butt in gear (literally). I’m such a sucky runner, I think I got ahead of myself by doing a full marathon as my first race. (I don't like using the term "race". It was hardly a race to me at all. My goal was to survive finish.)

I just want that darn Tiffany necklace.



I should be finding out within the next couple of days whether or not I was selected for the random draw. I would love love to escape to San Francisco for a weekend and for a super fun event like this!

I mean, you get chocolate AND a Tiffany necklace given to you by firemen in tuxedos??? Awesome.



I hope I get in.

pretty please?

Permanent Race Commemoration Idea

To celebrate the fact that I completed my first marathon and to officially and appropriately commemorate the experience, I’m getting a tattoo. duh. It appears as though I am not alone in doing such a thing as several Google searches have lead me to various forum threads, pictures, and magazine articles celebrating running tattoos.




I’ve pretty much narrowed it down to the following design:

I KID. My arms are nowhere near being muscular enough to pull something like that off. Not my style.

Here is what I’m thinking:
However I’m having some problems deciding on placement.

Do I want it here, like Katy Perry? I’m leaning more towards no; however, someday I’d like to put a tattoo here. I just don’t think this particular design would work in that area.


I’m thinking something more so along these lines:

But on the outside of my left foot. I'm almost 99% set on this spot.
I also really love this idea:

However, I’d get much cuter, smaller, girlier wings. They’d make me supa fast.
I’m thinking next Sunday (May 1st) is D-day. Or T-day. (T being for tattoo).
snicker snicker.
I'm doing my first 5K next weekend so maybe I'll just go after that.


I currently have a rather nice collection of tattoos. Here they are in order of oldest to newest.

1. Snowflake. Drawn by yours truly. Shop: Anchorage Tattoo Studio (aka Larry Allen) - Anchorage, AKArtist: Mason (aka THE MAN)Date: Winter 2005


2. Heart wrist tattoo. Also drawn by me. Shop: Ink Slingers - Jacksonville, NC Artist: Can't rememberDate: Winter 2006


3. Big dipper. The Alaska state flag. Shop: 808 Tattoo - Kaneohe, HIArtist: RonnieDate: Spring 2007 (it's been touched up since)


4. I like to call this one my "garden". It took about 6.5 hours to complete and cost a million dollars.Shop: Hart and Huntington - Waikiki, HIArtist: CoreyDate: Summer, 2009


5. Forget-me-not, the Alaska state flower. This little gem was $45! It's on my stomach (lower left side)Shop: 808 Tattoo - Kaneohe, HIArtist: RonnieDate: Summer 2009


6. Anchor, located on the inside of my left ankle. It has numerous meanings to me, but it’s a design off of a harmonica my grandpa gave me when I was little. Shop: Anchor Ink - Salt Lake City, UTArtist: DomDate: October, 2010.



More to come...plus some actual running this week I hope!!

MARATHON DE PARIS RECAP

I'm done neglecting my blog. I'm honestly going to do my best to keep this thing up to date even though I have no readers. My last post was regarding my fundraising goal (which I friggin met. winning.) so that means I have soooo much to tell about my trip to Paris and the actual race! So, brace yourselves. This is going to be a long one.

A few days prior to departing for Paris, I received my race gear after my last TNT group run. This was kind of a sad experience for me as I actually felt like part of the team on my last run. I didn't really feel so connected to anyone throughout this whole experience so when I received a lot of hugs and support on the last day, I felt a little sad to go. The Paris group was to run 6 miles this day which was the shortest distance out of all the groups. I finished.... FIRST. YESSSS!! That is probably the only time that will ever happen but hey, I'll take it. Anyway, I received my race packet and my purple TNT running jersey! I got home and tried it on and, sadly, it was giant. I also decided that the t-shirt may not have been the way to go as I thought I might experience some chaffing in the underarm area where the sleeves hit. So I made a trip down to the local LLS office and swapped out for a singlet. The small looked like something a toddler would wear, and the medium was a little big on me. No happy medium here...so I took the medium and figured it was better than wearing a tiny shirt that would accentuate my amazing body love handles. This meant I only had one day to decorate my singlet prior to departing to Paris. My TNT/running friend Christeen came over and we got to work.

I put my Aunt Terry's name on the back. I think she would have liked that...

So we departed from Salt Lake City Wednesday afternoon, stopped briefly in Chicago, and arrived in PARIS (omg) on Thursday morning. I slept the whole flight to Paris so I was actually fairly adjusted to Paris time when we landed. It caught up with me later, but for the first two days I felt pretty good.

DAY 1 

We took the train to our hotel (Marriot Rive Gauche) and ran into some other fellow TNTer's in the lobby. The hotel was pretty busy since people were coming in from all over for the marathon. Our room wasn't ready so we left our bags behind and set out to find breakfast. We stopped at a cafe just down the street and had some delicious toast topped with ham and cheese which was paired with a salad with dressing that didn't taste so great.

 

After refueling my body with a healthy, balanced breakfast an abundance of carbs, we spotted a sign that said "CATACOMBS" and had an arrow pointing to the left. I figured they must be nearby so we decided that would kill some time while our room was being prepared.

The Catacombs. Were. Awesome. I was not allowed to use my camera flash to take pictures, so I had to try to use the available lighting to make due.

I wasn't sure whether to smile or what in this picture?? What are you supposed to do when you are standing in front of a bunch of human remains that have been intricately stacked underground and are now a tourist attraction?

After exploring the Catacombs, we emerged from the dark and hopped on the metro to go see the Eiffel Tower. Christeen had previously been to Paris so she had already seen the tower, but this was my first time (Paris virg). Needless to say I was peeing my pants with excitement super excited. We hopped off the metro, walked a ways down the street, turned the corner... and there it was...

I know it's not the greatest picture, but this was my first time seeing the tower so I think it was appropriate to forever capture this moment on digital SD memory.

We walked around the base of the tower for a little while and I tried to just take it all in. Seeing the Eiffel Tower in person really made it real for me. PARIS. It was epic. Or epic-mazing, as my brother would say.

We crossed the street to check out the Seine River and figure out where to go next.

The sun was out, it was warm, and we just started walking. Christeen knew of a quaint little street called Rue Cler and we decided we would have lunch there. After walking a mile or two in the opposite direction, we figured out where we were going and finally found Rue Cler.

 

Christeen and I shared a jambon et fromage ham and cheese crepe (holy crap, so good), got some patisseries pastries, did a little shopping, got ice cream from an adorable girl who spoke decent English, and then made our way back to the hotel. My feet hurt so incredibly bad by the end of day one...apparently my must have "cute new shoes for Paris" were mos def not "walk all over the place on the first day" friendly. What gives? We were pretty tired and felt pretty nasty after flying all day/night and then walking around Paris in the sun for a few hours.

After getting checked into our room (around 5 pm), showering, and feeling much better, we decided to go check out the Eiffel Tower at night and get some dinner somewhere along the way. We took the elevator to the top of the tower and kept our bags close since we were continuously warned about pick-pockets.

The view from the top was amazing. Seeing the city lit up at night was breathtaking. It was crowded at the top of the tower and people were pretty rude and pushy, so we took the elevator down to the lower level and then took the stairs to the ground. We crossed the street and got another delicious crepe and some the best vanilla ice cream I've ever had and settled in to watch the tower sparkle. 11 o'clock rolled around the tower began to emit bursts of light from all over. It was one of the coolest/prettiest/awesomest things I've ever seen. The epic vanilla ice cream made it that much better.

Here's a short video I took

After that we headed back to the hotel to SLEEP! (End of day 1)

DAY 2

We got up relatively early and headed to the TNT breakfast hosted at the hotel. The food was pretty good if you don't mind eating cold eggs, bacon, and potatoes. We met up with some fellow Desert Mountain States TNT members at breakfast and decided to go to the Running Expo together to pick up our bibs.

 

We I did a little shopping at the expo and then we decided to do some further exploring. We went to Montmarte to check out the Sacre Coeur, which I still can't properly pronounce, and get some lunch. This was probably my favorite area of Paris that I actually got to see. The streets had so much character and the shops were unique and lively.

After exploring this area for a little while and getting some lunch, we decided to go check out Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. We made our way to the metro station, later arrived at the Arc, took a few photos, walked down Champs Elysees, went into a few stores, then decided we were plum tuckered and decided to head back to the hotel for some rest. Both Christeen and I were complaining of sore feet and legs, which somewhat worried me since we were running a marathon in a day or so.

Drinking Evian in France. I'm such a tourist.

After taking a nap, we decided to check out a pizza place near the hotel. The atmosphere was nice and the waitstaff seemed friendly. There came a point in the evening where the waitstaff became a little too friendly and it was time to go. Outside the restaurant, we met some local Parisians and they invited us to go get a drink with them and hang out for a little while.

 

It got late really fast and we made our way back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.

DAY 3 (race day eve)

We were pretty tired on day 3 after doing so much walking the first two days and still trying to recover from the flight/time change. We took it easy for most of the day and slept pretty much all morning. We were planning on taking the train to Versailles in the afternoon but then remembered we had the TNT inspiration dinner to attend around 5. Bummer, cause we didn't end up making it to Versailles. (Oh well, there's always next time). To kill some time before dinner, we walked around near the hotel and bought some fruit from a little shop. We sat on a bench in the sunshine and did some people watching (GREAT people watching in Paris). The strawberries I bought were hands down the best strawberries I've ever had, and that's saying something because I'm a big strawberry eater.

They were so good, I even took a picture of them.

We also bought some after race snacks at a nearby grocery store because we figured we'd be ridiculously tired after running 6 million miles 26 miles and would probably not want to continue to live go anywhere.

At the TNT inspiration dinner, we learned that the Paris TNT event alone raised $756,000 for the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society. How effing amazing is that???

After dinner, we had a meeting with the rest of the DMS TNT team and Christeen and I realized we were missing one crucial piece of equipment: a fuel belt. We decided to quickly run to the running expo to buy some so we could have something to hold our gu for the race. After that we were going to try to make it to the Notre Dame, but decided it was too late and called it a night since we had to be up early for the race MARATHON!!!!

So really day three was pretty boring and consisted of lots of sleep, grocery shopping, epic strawberries, TNT inspiration dinner, frantic fuel belt purchases at the running expo, and a nice glass of water at the hotel bar with fellow TNTers just before bed.

Holy crap. This was it. The day before race day. To say I was nervous would be the understatement of the year CENTURY. Christeen and I laid everything out, pinned our bibs on, attached our time chips to our shoes, and were as ready as we could be.

I laid down in bed and was able to actually drift off pretty quickly...

DAY 4 - RACE DAY!!!

We were up bright and early as we had to meet the rest of the team at 6:30 in the hotel lobby. We went and picked up our breakfast bags and were ready to go. We snapped a few photos in the lobby just before heading out.

On the metro, heading to the race start.




Team Utah!

We eventually found our places in the race start and I was feeling PUMPED. There was music playing, people all around...the whole scene was just incredible.

There were 60,000 some odd runners lined up along Champs Elysees getting ready to run their butts off.

The first few miles were amazing. People were cheering, percussion bands were playing, the sights were incredible. We came to the first aid station and there were no more fresh bottles of water, but big tubs filled with half empty ones that had been used by runners ahead of us. Gross, I know, but water is important and it was hot out so I chugged one down. We kept going. I felt amazing and was just trying to take it all in. There were a few times where the experience was kind of overwhelming and I couldn't believe what I was actually doing...so I got a little choked up. Naturally. I was running my first marathon. In Paris. That's kind of a big deal.

Here are my splits from the race

By looking at these, I think it's clear that there were some issues. I don't want to make excuses or point any fingers, but this is what happened. My running pal Christeen got sick pretty much the day we arrived in Paris. She got worse and worse as the days progressed and come race day, she just wasn't feeling good, at all. I told her we would finish the race together no matter what as everyone told us that for our first marathon, the goal was to finish and not beat any world records as we had previously intended. We ran the first few miles together with no problems. She started to get tired and we walked for short periods here and there. Obviously, mile 17 was where we had some problems, considering this was a 27 minute mile for me. We were falling back pretty far at this point and started talking to some other TNT people we came across. One girl had heat stroke and was going to take the metro to the finish when she got to the next station. Christeen looked at me and said that there was no way we were going to finish in time (we were told there was a cut off time of 5 hours and 40 minutes) and hinted that she wanted to take the metro as well. I told her that it was more important to me to finish the distance than to ride the metro to the finish just to get a medal. She didn't seem to agree with me and I know she was feeling pretty badly. I had a decision to make, so I made it. And took off.

Mile 18 was definitely my favorite mile of the race. We were running along the Seine River at this point of the course and looking over and seeing the Eiffel Tower was just surreal and amazing. This is another one of those moments where I got choked up. It was just such an amazing experience.

Here are a few pictures from about mile 18-19

At this point, I had my iPod blasting and I was just jamming along. At the aid stations, I would grab orange wedges, water, and raisins. I was taking a gu every 45 mins to an hour at the beginning and then spaced it out more at the end. It was hot and I was sweating a lot, so I had a few salt packets as well.

I don't know if I was distracted by the sights or if I was just on some kind of first time marathon high, but I was feeling pretty good. I kept thinking about the 5 hour, 40 minute time cut off and kept moving as best I could. I definitely stopped and took walking breaks. It was hot, I was getting really sore, and I had to try to get my mind back into it after having to leave my friend behind (sad).

When I saw the marker for mile 20, I was relieved. Little did I know that the next 6 miles were going to be what seemed like the longest six miles of MY LIFE. The last part of the course wrapped through a park and holy mother, that park seemed never ending.

I was run/walking at this point and was experiencing some sharp pains in my right hip and knee. My IT band was pretty mad at me and running on concrete and cobblestone for miles on end did not make my body happy at all.

Finally I saw the mile 26 marker and I dug deep to sprint to the finish. I was fighting back tears and getting emotional, so my heavy breathing turned into wheezing.

I knew it would be over the faster I made it to the finish line. And I kept telling myself that as I approached it...

And that's that. I finished. I did it. My chip time was 5:49:46, just minutes after the 5:40 cut off time which, come to find out, didn't actually exist. I'm not sure when they actually stopped giving out medals, but there was a ton of people that finished behind me that were still getting them. I hobbled along and went and collected my finishers t-shirt AND my ****MEDAL****. I looked around for a familiar face. I couldn't find any (surprise). I did spot some purple TNT jerseys so I went and hung out with them for a while and was going to walk to the metro station with them since they were in the same hotel. They were waiting for some other teammates to arrive so I took a seat on the curb. It was painful to sit down, but felt so nice at the same time. After sitting on the curb for a little while, I saw Christeen!! She did it! She finished!! I was so happy for her, but also felt so bad because I knew she didn't feel good at all. We limped to the metro together and made our way to the hotel. We each took an ice bath, showered, changed, and ordered room service. Bacon cheeseburgers. Yum. I was able to pack my bag that night since we were leaving the next day. I also tried to stretch some since my legs were insanely sore and extremely mad at me.

I did it. I finished. So incredibly proud of myself.

Day 5 - Time to go home

To finish up our time in Paris, we had our last TNT hotel breakfast, packed, checked out, and headed to the Eiffel Tower to take victory pictures with our finisher shirts and medals!

And that's it. We then made our way back to Salt Lake City. Christeen went to the doctor upon returning and found out she had pneumonia. Seriously?!?!

Anyway, Paris was incredible. My first marathon was amazing. I met a bunch of really great people. I am completely hooked on running and I can't wait to run another race. I have been experiencing some sharp pain in my right knee, however, so hopefully it's nothing serious. I signed up for my first 5K which is coming up on April 30th. I also registered for the random drawing for the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco in October. I don't have any plans on doing another full anytime soon, but I am thinking about possibly doing the Rock n' Roll Las Vegas Full Marathon in December.

I will definitely do another full marathon. I will definitely be returning to Paris in the future. I will definitely make sure my next trip to Paris is longer than 4 days.

I know I can get a better time if I do another full because I didn't train very hard for Paris. I did my best to juggle work/school/life, but I should have ran way more than I did. I was also really sore from walking so much the first few days in Paris, I was hungry from not having access to familiar foods, and I tried to finish 26 miles with someone who had a different pace/stride than me and who was also sick.

I definitely learned a lot from my first race and I know that next time, I can get a better time and perform better all around. My goal this time around was to finish.

And I did.