Linden's Pensieve

I feel really great about my showing in my first marathon, but now it’s time to get down to the numbers. I’m not going to be doing any “coulda, shoulda, woulda.” My most basic goal was to do my best and finish the race, prove to myself that I can do it, and I did those things. I’ll be more critical next time around, when I actually do focus more on pace.

If you haven’t read them already, be sure to check out part 1 (Starting line to Km 14) and part 2 (Km 14 to Finish Line)!

Across The Line

“This is it! I did it!” I was laughing out loud, smiling a big, proud smile. A medal was placed around my neck, the Schwarz-Rot-Gelb of the German flag striking on the ribbon. I looked at it. On one side, the Brandenburger Tor, which I had just run through, and on the other, the face of Haile Gebrselassie with the world record he set last year at the Berlin Marathon, and which he broke during this year’s Berlin Marathon.

In part 1 of this race report, I left off with saying goodbye to my husband at about kilometer 14.

I left my cheering squad on a mental high. I was running faster than I planned, talking short walking breaks like I knew I should no matter how I felt, and felt great. I kept up with the high 5s, the cheering. Kept looking at my kilometer messages and thinking about memories with whoever had signed up for the kilometer I was on, sometimes repeating their message over and over in my head.

I don’t even know where to start. I guess at the beginning.

On Sunday, September 28, 2008, Rob woke me up at 6:00. Got dressed, ate a banana and Kashi bar, and we all loaded into the van to go to the Zepernick train station. We were the first on the platform, so I took a jog down to the end and back to warm up my muscles. By the time I got back, there were three other marathoners waiting for the train. On every stop into Berlin, more marathoners got on the train—easily spotted by their plastic marathon bags

Is there anything better than running a race you didn’t know you were competing in? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, though, on Thursday, I ran Non-Runner Nancy’s 8 on the 8th Virtual Race. But I didn’t find out that Nancy was hosting this virtual race until today. :)
This is my first virtual race, so I [...]