Blue Ridge Marathon Recap, Miles 1-7-ish

Holy Moly.  How are you feeling today, you ask?  Well, sore.  And tight.  And walking a little bit like a 9 months pregnant woman?  Hahaha. 

The marathon was amazing.  It was just flat out TOUGH.  And beautiful, and thought-provoking, and inspiring, and sometimes so hard I wanted to die, but sometimes so awesome I cried!  Wow.  A lot of emotions I squeezed in to 6 hours and 40 minutes.  Probably the slowest 32 year old marathon finishing time ever.  ;)  just kidding. 

Here we go...mostly pictures, but I do want to share some of the encouraging words I got to read at each mile...

Starting Line!  See the girl in the blue sparkle skirt??  I didn't know at
 the time we would be running together for a bit in the second half!

#1. First time for short socks!
#2.  Check out those snazzy shoes...
#3.  Don't I look "professional" with my bib on my leg?
#4.  Yeah...there's a bit of the fanny pack.  :)

Apparently I missed the Mile 1 marker.

Woohoo.  It's all fun and games at Mile 2.
From my notebook, sweet Sandy said "Throw back your shoulders, let your heart sing, let your eyes flash, let your mind be lifted up, look upward and say to yourself...Nothing is impossible!  Norman Vincent Peale"  I did exactly as you instructed!  And it felt good!  Might have looked a little crazy to others...   :)

Mile 1 asked for a picture of Jesus...my camera didn't capture it,
but the sun shining through these trees was just awesome.
P.S.  I tried to get a picture of a woman in tie-dye, cause I think
Jesus would wear tie-dye to watch a marathon.  :)

Here we go!  Uphill #1.  I seriously thought, hey, this ain't so bad...

The sign past the mile marker says "Entrance to Blue Ridge Parkway"
For anyone who's ever driven the BRP, it was pretty cool to be running on it with no traffic!
By the way...still going up....

But I'm still pretty chipper!

Lots of walking at this point.  Up, up, up

Kristy told me to dig deep and find my strong.  I was feeling good about it at this point...
Later, however, these words would come back to me several times.  Thanks, Kristy!!!

Mile 5 and some GREAT spectators!!! 
Oh, and more up.

Pretty unflattering picture, sorry. 
I was trying to get my shirt words in it
West End Community Church!  Represent!

Here we really go...where those people are, they are going to make a sharp right...

And begin the ascent to Roanoke Mountain
"No Stopping"!

Seriously.  Up...

I'm loving it, can you tell?
Check out the rockstars behind me...running!

Um....more up...

See how the scenery changes, but the road is still going UP?!

Success!  At the time I was being told "The worst Hill/Mountain is over!"
And I thought, "Hooray!"

From my notebook, "Mile 5:  It's not 26.2 miles...It's 10 water stops.  Take a picture of your water stop."
I believed those nice people when they told me the worst hill was over...this was the water stop at the "top". 

View from the top.  Breathtaking.

I missed the picture of the mile 7 marker, but I know this was past Mile 7.
Glorious!!!

Well, I am going to post the rest in a little bit.  Sorry!!  I just wanted to share this from my notebook...

"Mile 17: ...Just remember: Run the first part with your head, the middle part with your personality, and the last part with your heart..."

My sweet friend, Ashley, who wrote this isn't the math freak that I am, so she had no way of knowing how much it would drive me crazy that 26.2 isn't evenly divisible by 3.  Hahaha.  Sorry.  Anyway, I am considering those first 7+ the first part.  I ran that with my head.  I jogged, didn't push myself too hard during my run intervals and pretty well stuck to the 2:1 ratio I had planned on.  I paid attention to good stretches during the uphills and I really made it a point to feel GOOD.

I will post the personality portion (and maybe even the finish, too) later today!