Inaugural 3 Bridges Marathon

This post is long and I am not sorry.

Running the 3 Bridges Marathon was one of the best things that happened to me in 2013.  After being plagued by injury all summer, I needed something to restore my running confidence.  You see, I’ve only been running for two years.  People assume I have been running my entire life, but I am totally new to all of this.  I have no idea what I am doing.  My first marathon was in March and I got a stress fracture, but I finished.  I attempted a 50k in April and gimped up my knee so bad I couldn’t finish.  What if my body was physically unable to run long distances?

In late July, I visited Rock City Running for the first time.  I had been in PT for months and I just wanted to run so badly.  I met a lovely lady named Annette and she put me in a new brand of shoe.  They were ugly, and I hesitated, but she insisted Hokas would get me running again.  She was right.  I slowly bumped my mileage up and started looking for a test race.  When I found 3 Bridges, it was already full, but I got on the waiting list.  I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to officially run, but I started training anyway.  After 3 weeks, I got the glorious email: I was in!!!!  I had a bib!!!

During my training I also started creeping on folks who ran marathons all the time.  You know, Maniacs.  Facebook and Twitter are awesome creeping tools.  I was trying to figure out what they did different.  What was their secret to running so many races and not getting hurt?  I noticed something.  They weren’t bragging about finishing times or negative splits, they bragged about how much fun they had and the new friends they made.  By George, I think I found the secret!  Really, what is the point to all of this if I’m not having fun?

At packet pick up, I got a picture with Annette.  She has no idea that she was so influential in my return to marathoning, but she was.  I learned a lot by watching her.

Anyway, enough sappy junk.  Let’s get to the actual race.  I encouraged Lisa into signing up for this race, and she didn’t know, but I planned on running every step with her.  I had two goals: finish and have fun.  I knew I could accomplish my first goal on my own, but I really needed her to help me with the second.

Along the way, Lisa introduced me to everyone.  No really, I’m not kidding, she knows everyone.  I felt like I was getting into the cool kids club by running with her.  We told random stories and talked about life to pass the miles.

At the Clinton Library turnaround, we alarmed tourists with our odd behavior:

And we posed for the camera:

We did have one photo taken of us while we were actually running and not goofballing around:

Lisa is a good poser, and well, I’m not:

After we crossed Two Rivers Bridge for the first time, we started singing.  It was awful.  We quickly learned that we don’t know the real words to anything, but that didn’t stop us.  We sang words that sounded good and possibly rhymed with the correct lyrics.  At mile 22 we pretended to hit the wall:

Surprisingly, I don’t think either of us hit the wall for real.  It was great.  Oh and we finally finished:

We quickly ate very good food:

Anyway, I guess I should wrap this post up.  3 Bridges Marathon was great.  I had fun.  Now go check out Arkansas Outside’s recap and you can also see a bunch of great photos of other people.

Also, if you want to read Lisa’s version of this race head over to her blog and check out her recap.

And yes, I am already signed up for my next marathon 🙂