Lincoln Marathon and Half Marathon. Done.

This last weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting my brother in Lincoln, Nebraska, as we finished a months-long plan to run the Lincoln Marathon. (I would run the half. He would run the full marathon.) Mom and my little sister came along to cheer us on, so I got to see them as well. My brother and his girlfriend (who is a lovely young woman, by the way) hosted me in their apartment.

It was nice to see them all.

Alright, so the day was very gloomy. There was a lot of rain along the way, from heavy mist to a quick-but-intense downpour. My brother lined up to run in the 8-minute mile group while I lined up at the very back of the pack, where I always line up. That way, I will always be catching up to people, especially the walkers.

It took a good half hour for me to get to the starting line, but, once I got there, I started running at a good clip (about 12-minute miles, which is fast for me) for the first half mile. Then I slowed down to a jog/walk. I would repeat this until mile number ten. That was my strategy. I wasn’t going to run myself out the whole way. I was there for fun.

Except that mile number nine had a big hill in it, and the road was a little worn out. So I managed to twist my left ankle a bit. From there to mile 11, I walked more than I jogged. It was around that time that my brother’s girlfriend notified us via instant messenger that he was a couple of miles away from finishing, so I decided to turn on the afterburners. I ended up finishing strong.

The course was nice and flat for most of the time, except between miles nine and eleven. Then it’s a big of an upward push, which, at that distance, you feel like it’s more inclined than it really is. The rain and the low temperatures actually helped a little bit by keeping us cool. If it were a little bit warmer, and just as humid, it would have been intolerable to run this race.

All in all, it was a good run. I’m very proud of my brother for achieving his first full marathon, and I’m proud of myself for finishing really strong… Even if I did end up waking up that night with an intense pain in my foot which may or may not be a stress fracture. (I’ll heal soon enough.)