photos from the camera i carried with me on the run...

during the race, i carried a disposable camera with me so that i could take photos.

this first photo is of my friends from work, sarah and isaac! they were awesome to come and cheer me on. i stopped to take a photo of us; however, the only part of me that i got was my bright green viser in the left hand corner! oops!

this next photo is of the crowd! check out how many people there are!!!

this next photo is of me right after i finished the race. because there was a line to get a medal and a space blanket (before exiting the area), i asked the girl behind me to take a photo of me and the iwo jima memorial!

this last photo is of me at haines point, the toughest part of the run! since this statue the awakening is so hard to get to, most people have never seen it. so i made sure to take a photo of it when i was running by it to show people that it really exists!

photos from marine corps marathon

finally, i got a couple photos that regis took of me uploaded on here! this first one is of me coming into the potomac parkway (aka haines point), which is about mile 16.3!

this next photo is of me and regis right before the lincoln memorial, so around mile 9.5. this was the first time on the course that i saw him so i was really excited! he came up and ran right next to me, and we took this photo on the move! this last photo is after the race, at the team in training tent. from left to right, it's me, mark (a friend of mine who ran the race), marian (one of my friends who came out to cheer me on), and regis.

the end of a journey

i can't even believe it, but sunday october 29th came and went. and on that day, i completed my first marathon! it's unbelievable to think that i started this journey in mid-may and it ended on sunday with the race.

well, i have to say that it really was a great journey, from beginning to end, difficult but wonderful!

the marathon was awesome. since i had my name on my shirt (i ironed on bright green letters that said "steph") i had a ton of crowd support by people yelling out "way to go steph" or "good job steph keep it up." and i had some great friends come out to support me during the race: regis, sarah, isaac, marian, wylie, debbie, and van. unfortunately, i didn't actually get to see debbie and van, as i missed them in the crowds. but regis helped make up for it by making it to 5 different spots along the course: at the start of the race, by the jefferson memorial , entering haines point, exiting haines point, and right at the end of the race, just before mile 26! i also had great support from those that couldn't be here with me in dc! thanks everyone. you guys are all amazing!

now back to the race. i had 2 goals for the race: 1. to average 10 minutes per mile, therefore finishing in 4 hours and 20 minutes; and 2. to run the entire race. while i didn't meet goal 1, i did meet goal 2! instead of finishing in 4 hours and 20 minutes, i took 19 minutes longer and finished in 4 hours and 39 minutes (for race results click here); for fancy graphical results, click here! however, i ran the entire race with a big smile on my face! and to me, it was worth it to add those 19 minutes and really enjoy the entire thing!

highlights of the race:

• having regis and my friends out there to support me
• random people i've never met before saying "you can do it steph"
• the crowd
• mile 24 -- after i got to mile 24, i said to myself, okay steph, only 2 miles left. you CAN DO THIS!!!
• finishing!

the worst parts of the race:

• miles 17-20ish, haines point. this part was made a little bit easier to run because of the following: i saw regis when i was entering the park and he told me that he'd see me in 3 miles when i was exiting. this helped me to get through it!; one of my coaches, coach john, was at haines point and ran with me for a couple minutes to help me get through it; and when i got to the awakening, i took a photo!
• 14th street bridge (i think this is mile 21ish). another coach from the virginia team ran with me for about 5 minutes during this section and once again, it was really helpful
• mile 15: my legs started to get SO heavy and i honestly thought this would happen a little bit later on

when i get some photos i will add them to this post. but just want to let everyone know that the run went well, i had a great time and i finished! and being with team in training was such a help. i can't even tell you how many TNT supporters were out there in the crowd and how many times i heard "go team!" it was great!!! thanks again for all your support!

the countdown begins

if you can believe it, my marathon is in 4 days! ahh!!! i can't believe it's finally here. since the start of this week, i've been going on short runs and started drinking A LOT of water. starting on thursday, i'm going to begin carbo loading!

for those of you that live in dc, it would be great to see you out on the course! if you want more details on where the race is, the best places to check out the race, go to the spectator page of the marine corps marathon website as they have tips on what to do. this race is also really high tech; they've got places along the course where you can check where the runner is on the course. to read more about it, click here. you can also sign up to get email messages and text messages to track the runner along the course. they've also got some sort of a map track but i don't really understand what that is. and of course on the website, they've also got a map of the course.

if you do plan to come out and cheer me on, here's some information that you will probably want to know to help identify me!

BIB NUMBER: 25105 (you'll need this if you want to sign up to receive text/email messages!

WHAT I'LL BE WEARING:

• a florescent green TNT visor (all dc team in training participants will be wearing it but there's only about 150 some people and it's really bright so that should help to identify me
• a purple team in training tanktop (however this depends on the weather)! if it's cold, a white addidas top with lime green stripes down the sleeves (and at the start of the race, i might have on a trashbag or space blanket to warm me up)
• on bottom: a pair of black shorts.

PROJECTED PACE PER MILE: somewhere between 9 minutes and 40 seconds to 10 minutes and 20 seconds. hopefully i'll average 10 minute per mile! (this means that i should finish around 4 hours and 20 minutes!)

START TIME: there are 2 start times to the marine corps marathon. i will be in the second wave that starts at 8:45am.

thanks again for all your support and i hope i'll see you out there on the course!

the last official team run

on saturday, i went out to run our very last official team run. the entire national capital team, including the dc, virginia and maryland teams, all gathered together for the last run of the season. although we do have another run this weekend, it's an "unofficial run" since most of our coaches will be in san francisco to cheer on the TNT participants who will be running in the nike womens marathon! anyway, this was probably my favorite run of the season. why you ask? because we ran to the marine corps memorial (iwo jima), which will be the finish line for the marine corps marathon! we were also joined by a corps of marines, who ran with us. and not only did they run with us, but for every street that we crossed, one marine would stay behind and stop traffic so that all of us runners could run by. after a 2 mile run to the memorial, we stopped for a bit to enjoy the beautiful morning sun and the great view of washington, dc in front of us. our coaches talked to us about what this would mean the next time we would be there and how exciting it would be for us to run the marine corps marathon, especially since we all live in the dc metropolitan area. after this short stop, we continued on our run for another 6 miles to total an 8 mile run (which seemed like a really short run!)

since this was the last run, i also took along my camera so that i could capture something on film of the last 6 months of my life. embedded in this post are photos of the friends i have made with team in training. i also included one photo of our entire team and a photo of the marines before our run began. i can't believe the marathon is now less than 2 weeks away!!!
















the photos are from top to bottom: men from the marine corps; michelle, hallie and bill; janelle, rich and anna

more photos of TNT

here are more photos of the team...

the first one is the group of girls that i first started running with: anna, hallie and janelle









this photo is the entire national capital area team.




and this last one is a photo of coach rich, who's awesome!!!

army 10 miler

on sunday, i ran the army 10 miler race. it was a beautiful day to run a race and we were really lucky to have such great weather, considering that on saturday it was freezing, raining and miserable all day long! however, one great thing about dc is that you can have really crappy weather one day and then have really great weather the following day! and that's what we had.

the race was pretty fun, although since the start and finish were at the pentagon, there were all these extra security measures. at the starting line area, you were not allowed to bring the following items: camelbaks or any other hydration systems, water belts, fitness heart monitors, bags, backpacks, coolers, strollers, baby-joggers, skateboards, rollerblades, bicycles, animals, water bottles, fanny packs, ipods, radios/headphones, cell phones, or blackberrys. while i did see some people on the run with their ipods, i also saw a couple runners that were not allowed to enter the starting line area with their ipods. so they were kind of strict about it. their reasoning for all the restrictions were that this is an army event held at the pentagon and we are a nation at war; therefore extra security measures need to be enforced.

besides that, the race went off without a hitch. while my plan was to do the run nice and easy, i ended up running faster than my plan of 10 minutes per mile and finished the race averaging 9 minutes and 6.5 seconds per mile, finishing in just over 91 minutes.

highlights of the race include:

• seeing men run in really short USA flag shorts
• eating a bratwurst sandwich postrace that i got from the army stationed in germany tent
• at mile 8, seeing 2 runners dressed up as wonder women
• at the end of the race at the garment pickup line, i was a women wearing a teeshirt that said "leslie ww2 vet"
• at the same garment pickup line which had at least 75 people waiting to get their bags, i all of a sudden heard a bunch of cheering and the line opened up and parted like the red sea. i then saw a 90 year-old man walking down the middle. i guess he was waiting in the back of the line and someone said to him, sir, you don't have to wait in line! i guess this guy runs the army 10 miler every year and is an army vet! it was awe-inspiring that this 90 year old man still runs 10 miles!!!

race photos will be sent out tomorrow, so if i have any, i'll try to post them up on the site!

until soon...

20 mile run in the 'burbs

on saturday morning, at 5:45am, i dragged myself out of my warm bed to get ready for the big 20-mile run, the longest run that i will have completed before the marathon! by 6:00am, i was in the car and being driven out to reston, virginina, which is out by dulles airport. for those of you who don't know dc, it's like a 30 minute drive out of dc and into the suburbs. by 7:00am, we were standing outside, doing a warm-up lap (can i just say that i think this is crazy to do a warm-up lap when you are about to run 20 miles, i mean why can't mile 1 be the warm-up lap?), stretching and listening to announcments. at 7:15am, i bravely took off my jacket and immediately began to freeze. and by 7:20am, we were off on the trail!

3 hours and 24 minutes later, i had finished my longest run ever, 20 miles! and let me tell you, it felt great to finish it! although i'm still a little worried about those 6.2 extra miles that i have to run on race day. i mean, that's still one more hour of running!

my actual running of that day was pretty good. i felt energized and my body felt good. the only problem was that it was really really cold and it rained a little bit, which made it even colder. i kept pumping my hands, because they were just so cold! one would assume that since you are running for 3 hours, you would generate heat to keep your entire body warm. anyway, i assumed wrong and should have worn a long sleeved shirt to run in. or, at least brought a pair of mittens to keep my hands warm!

after the run, everyone was starving! i mean, normally, i eat a couple pretzels after the run (our coaches usually bring us food) and don't eat until i get home. but on saturday, i was starving and m&ms were the best things ever! i even ventured to have a piece of pizza, but by the time i hit the boxes, none was left!

now we begin tapering, which means that for the next 3 weeks, our long weekend runs will start to decrease in mileage and our weekday runs will start to decrease as well. this weekend on sunday, i'll be running in the army 10-miler race, so that should be fun!

i can't believe it. i've been training since may and now there's only 27 days left!