Saturday was the 11th running of the Akron Marathon, and would also be the first (and probably last) full marathon that I would run. It was the final step in what would be the hardest month and a half of training that I went through this summer. Starting with a half marathon in mid-August, to a 20 miler, then the Oly Tri and a single week "rest" before the day came.
I generally don't get nervous before a race, I generally feel that I am trained up for it and am pretty confident in my abilities. This was not the case for the 26.2 mile race ahead of me. I was as trained as I could be but also had a time goal in my mind of sub 4 hours. I really didn't think it was going to be possible. This was absolutely going to be the toughest single event I would have put myself through.
4:30 in the morning comes extremely fast when you toss and turn all night. Erin and I got to Akron about 5:30 and met the group that I was running the race with and tried our best to get each other psyched up and ready to run for at least the next 4 hours. Eventually the time came, the national anthem was sang, a bell rang and 3 minutes later I was crossing the start line. Off we went.
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| 5:30 happy faces before the pain. |
To hit my goal I had to stay at a 9:00/mile pace. My strategy was to settle in around 8:30-45/mile for the first 16ish miles so when the climb out of the valley kicked in and my legs fell off I'd have a bit of a cushion. I missed seeing Erin around mile 3 (probably because I was soo fast), but I did see her at mile 8 and it put a smile on my face and kept me chugging along. After the half marathoners split from the group at 11 it got far less crowded quickly. Coming down a hill and making the turn onto the tow path I glanced over and saw Erin running right next to me. She had ran from to catch us on the turn to see us one more time before we disappeared for the next 14ish miles. Seeing her smile and getting to tell her I loved her before I headed into the worst part of the race was huge for me.
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| Mile 12, still feeling strong. |
Fast forward to mile 20.5ish... It was like a switch was flipped, suddenly everything started to hurt, every slight grade change felt like everest. That line had found me. The last 10k of a marathon are truly a mental battle almost as much as a physical one. My pace dropped a bit but I knew I was still on target, I had built a 15 minute cushion at that point. About every mile past 22 my right calf would completely lock up forcing me to stop a stretch it out for a couple seconds. I just kept telling myself that there were always going to be harder points in life and that if I could power through this I could make it though whatever life tossed at me. The last stretch down Main St. towards Canal Park was the hardest run I've ever had, another cramp stopped my briefly but I was going to make it. When I turned into the stadium through the outfield and saw the time I knew I could crawl to the line and still beat my goal.
I crossed at 3:53:00. 8 minutes faster that my goal. There at the line I was met by my friend and one of my inspirations in the running world Brian, who also happens to be the race director. I was dead, and he was pumped for me, it really meant a lot to me to hear his congratulations and the quick hug before I headed down the line to claim my medal.
The next 2 days hurt. A lot. In fact, right now I am dreading having to walk down the stairs to hang out on the couch and then maybe even more having to walk back up them to get to bed. I have come to the conclusion that my marathon dreams are now complete. I did it, I achieved me goal and I won't have to do it again.
But maybe even bigger than that achievement was that we received an email this afternoon from the director at our agency. We have been approved! We can start to apply and try and match to a birth mother to get our baby. Actually we already applied to a situation. We heard about it a couple weeks ago and we interested then, but we not finalized yet. Last week we got word that she was requesting more profiles to review, meaning she had yet to match. I emailed our director and said we were interested and should be final any day now. Today the email asked if we would like to apply.
Erin and I looked at each other and just thought, this is actually happening. After what felt like forever we were actually tossing our hat into the ring to see if someone would choose us to parent their child.
To say it was a little surreal and overwhelming would be inaccurate. It's probably the strangest and most exciting feeling we've ever felt. We have no idea when we'll find out if we've been chosen or not but either way, we can actually make out the finish line out there in the distance. There will be cramps that will put us on the side of the road before we cross the line, it will hurt, we will want to give up. But just like the post race pain, in time we will forget about that and just remember the glory at the end and that baby will be worth all that 10 fold.
We can see the line and we will finish but instead of a medal and mylar blanket, it will be our baby and the rest of our lives. Now to just keep one foot in front of the other and keep on pushing.
Love wins,
Erin & Adam
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