Surf City Marathon Pictures!

It's just been an exciting week all around, from my marathon to basking in the accomplishment of running it to thinking about future marathons and races and signing up for a free 5K, and now this.

The official race pictures are up! Originally they were supposed to be up on Sunday but apparently the people with Brightroom are fast workers. I've been checking this all week, so when the option finally appeared to scour through pictures, I was instantly excited.

Let me present to you the official race pictures - most of them anyway.

still got all my Gu packets intact

This is somewhere around Mile 3. It was on a small incline and near an intersection. I believe right after this we all took a right turn on some street. I remember this picture because the guy in front of me wearing neon green (seriously, who would wear neon green for a race, jeez... says the guy who wore pink, j/k of course) was close to me but I let him get ahead just a bit so the photographer would have a clear shot of me. Yeah, I'm a ham sometimes, I admit.

Marilu and LB, first-time marathoners rockin' Surf City

This is Marilu, my awesome running partner. I'm not sure what mile this is in but I'm guessing around Mile 17 or 18.

the Pink Fish returns

Remember the Pink Fish? This guy:

separated at birth

Well, he's back. He made his appearance during Surf City. Seriously, I don't know why I do that with my mouth. It's not very sexy or manly. It looks like I'm floundering for air. Wheeze, wheeze, wheeze.... But I guess that's how you can tell that I'm laboring.

hitting the wall

I think this was around Mile 23. You can tell because I'm deep in thought. That was something else. I've thought about that moment, well, those moments I guess, where I was filled with doubt and emotion and frustration. That's something else. That was the most challenging part about the whole race, I believe. I knew physically I could do it. I trained for it and I put my faith in the Lopers so I knew the race was doable. But that wall is no joke. It will break you if you let it. It got to me a bit but I pushed it away and broke through it.

pain setting in

I went through stages of running during the marathon, from running to walking. This is one of the moments where you could say I was shuffling. I wans't motoring along at this point I don't think. I'd say this is somewhere around Mile 24 or 25, and the Fish looks like he's grimacing.

Ah, but everything paid off in spades at the end.

it's over!!!

who's the man?

My buddy Angie told me to smile, no matter how you feel, at the finish line. I'm sorry Angie that I did not heed your advice.

To be honest, when I approached the finish line I was so worn down and so exhausted that I had to think to myself "Okay, raise your arms in the air" and I thought about how Jephy's Mom had said it was like the Tour de France cyclists crossing the finish line. I don't think I had any energy to smile.

Still, I love that picture. All those pictures (here's a link to all of my race pics). And I'm excited to see them and to be able to show them to you!!