Jacksonville Marathon- December 19, 2010

Well, another marathon is done.  This makes 5 in 5 different states- Maine, Vermont, Alabama, Louisiana and now Florida.  Weather conditions called for light drizzle near the start time of 7am but then clearing but a bit windy and staying on the cool side- 40-50's.  Night before photo laying everything out-getting the number on the race belt, putting name on the shirt, getting gel packets ready, charging watch, etc.  The plan was to leave by 4:45am to give us time to get there and park and find the starting line, etc.  We left a bit before that so right on schedule.

And of course in the right hand side of the photo is the glide, safety pins, and baby aspirin.

Parking was a nightmare but we finally found a spot on a side road.  I wanted to keep my long sleeve shirt on because of the cold and then I snagged Bruce's hooded sweatshirt while awaiting the starting gun.  Edie and I decided to get the watches started about 15 minutes til the gun- my mind did go back to new Orleans when at that point I discovered that my watch had NOT charged the night before.  Hence, it was just added weight during the race!

Here we are:

The first 8 miles or so was chilly and I started to feel that my legs were heavy-didn't think I could manage the pace for the entire 26.2 miles.  Mentally I was exhausted right then and each quarter mile from there until 13 was tough.  I decided to turn on the music and that helped tremendously!  I started to pick up the pace from 13-19 and then just couldn't wait to see the mile 20 marker!

The last 6 though was some of the slowest but I knew that each step was bringing me closer to the finish line! They had run out of space blankets by the time I got there- although there were supposedly at least 800 more behind me! I guess they didn't order enough.

Here is the video that Bruce shot of the race.