We Did It!

Janica and I ran our first marathon on Saturday, in Newport, Oregon. It was an amazing experience for me. I'll post pictures in the next day or so. Here's a link where you should be able to see us at the finish line. http://aep.exposuremanager.com/p/nm09_45/under45_14534 Thre's 2 pictures after that one of us, too. The race was right on the coast, and followed the water the entire way. We had perfect weather. I was lucky, and felt really good for the whole race. My legs were tired at the end, but no bad knees or anything like that. Janica's right leg was bothering her, which was a bummer for her, but we felt good about how we did overall. Our final time was 4 hours 11 minutes, and from mile 15, where we turned around to head back to the finish line, no one passed us, but we passed quite a few people. Our 2nd half was actually faster than our first, I think due to less bathroom breaks. As we crossed the finish line I was laughing and crying. I was quite unprepared for how emotional I was! I haven't felt like that since Lily was born. Lily was obviously the more important, bigger, better event, but the way I felt as far as my emotions was similar. I started training for this right after Emily died, and I think that had a large part to do with how emotional I was at the end. I think that she was cheering us on. And we had so many people there at the end-Robby, Lily, Janica's family, Robby's sister and her husband, his mom and her friend, and my parents and sister Sarah. I think it doesn't matter what it is or the distance of the race, that feeling of accomplishing a goal is just a great feeling. Thanks for all the encouraging words!