My First Full Marathon! Cork City Marathon - June 2, 2014

Cork Marathon Registration Expo

Cork City Hall - Marathon Expo Location

Like a giddy little kid! (but also terrified because I was still sick - respiratory bug - and convinced I was going to die in the marathon.)

One of the most exciting pieces was...after several years of races and always walking up to the "HALF marathon" table, I got to walk straight up to the FULL marathon table and collect my number! I looooved that feeling.

Yep, that's right..."Gloria Dykstra....Marathon!"

Notice, Dad awake....

Not 4 minutes later...Dad asleep.

The whole DLPR gang down from Dublin. Pretty good group for a race 4 hours away.

Geared up the night before and all my bars/gels handily tucked into my lovely shorts.

Marathon expos can be tiring business. Sometimes you need a nap, mid-expo, and then maybe another directly after.

My biggest supporter. We all (about 20 of us, including spectators) wore these blue ribbons Lindsey made, in memory of Graham. He would have been here, without a doubt, even though it was his 40th birthday weekend. It was bittersweet completing this without him there but I 'called on him' and touched that ribbon more times than I can count when I felt really spent.

Wayne and Norah, our most trusty supporters! We saw them at least 3 times before the 5-mile mark. So exciting to see them a few times early on - before the long, long slog out of the city.

Waitin' for mom at mile 3.

The two fastest guys in our group, comin' past Wayne & Norah, early on.

Seeing our other good friend John!

We ran into Ze Germans at about Mile 5 - these guys had EACH run 200 marathons (hence the full lederhosen costumes on a hot, hot day). They were so funny - luckily a couple of our ladies speak German so we could chat with them for a minute. They were good entertainment for a mile or two which is always much appreciated in a marathon.   

THIS! This was my favorite moment of the entire marathon (except running into the finish) because we realized it was my family at mile 17 (we had no idea where they'd be) and in the same millisecond, I realized they made signs!! (And brought them secretly, not only from Seattle to Ireland, but then from Dublin all the way to Cork without my knowing!). And this poster my Dad is holding is from a comic we absolutely adore so I was laughing and crying all at the same time. My running partner Lindsey started crying too. Mile 17 was a bit of a lull for us so they couldn't have been in a better location!

This is one of my favorite videos of all time! "Big head Gloria's on."

My family is just so incredible. So thankful for them. I swear, it's easier to run the marathon than stand around for 4 hours waiting for your runner to come past!

And after 26 full miles, here we are - Lindsey my dearest and myself, coming into the finish line. We were on CLOUD NINE and feeling so amazing. We're both laughing and crying at the same time and soaking up every single second of it.

Nice little time-lapse of us racing into the finish!! (Turns out the course was 26.5 miles and not 26.2...thanks Cork).

Tearful hugs at the finish line.

Mary swears by the leg-drains after a long run which consists of laying flat on the ground with your legs up a wall (or fence...) and it gets all the toxins out of your legs/feet and back into your blood stream to be flushed out. Felt amazing to lay flat for a minute or two and I genuinely think it helped.

 So elated at the finish with my team - the mighty DLPR!

Mary here, in the blue is a well known running coach in Dublin and a Chi-Running instructor. In the spring, I arranged a private workshop with Mary for our running club and we all got to know her then. She and I had chatted briefly for the last few months before that and I was lucky enough to run 13 of these 26 miles with Mary. She is such a joy - a woman who is not much older than me but has run 40 (FORTY!) marathons and ultra-marathons. As you can imagine, she'd be a fantastic running partner on your first marathon. She and the other ladies are the number one reason I had such a positive experience during this marathon. Despite having a slight lung infection (eek), I ran it all with a huge smile on my face (despite a stretch at mile 22 where we at least still joked about the fact that I could NOT contort my face into a smile at will any longer). I do not exaggerate when I say, I had fun in each of the 26 miles. I had a ball and soaked up every minute of the experience.

Well, long story short-ish...Mary also writes for the Irish Times and she took this picture which was then shared on the Irish Times Running page. She took this because Sarah did the Irish Times Couch-to-5K program from Seattle (following Mary online) and she wanted a picture with us two, "success stories"! :) And we are, aren't we?? :) :) (Sarah has now run 2 5K races and is on her way to her first 10K in September)

And if you'd like to read through, Mary wrote up an absolutely lovely blog post about the Cork Marathon (as she does on each of her many marathons) but a lot of it is about us running together and it being my first marathon:

http://marathontourist.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/cork-city-marathon/

 All of us Finishers who travelled down from Dublin. We really are so blessed because not only did we have this huge group of runners but we had my 5 family members down, cheering us on, Billy's wife Stephanie (also a DLPR runner), Alan (DLPR) who drove down solely to cheer us on, and Fiona and Keith (both of whom run with the DLPR but also siblings of 2 marathon-runners in Cork). We were surrounded by love and support, from beginning to end; which is pretty amazing, say, for the Dublin marathon - but to have that in a city 4 hours away?! Unreal. What an amazing group of people we have here.   

Oh, yep, here we are in the pub just after the finish and there's my dear ol' Dad, conked out again, this time, wearing a crown of my faces. Ahhh, just as it should be. We had a lovely time here just after the finish line - we all met for some lunch, a celebratory pint and then headed back to our respective hotels/apartments for showers before meeting again that evening.

One shocking aspect to finishing was that I had zero soreness afterward (from an hour after, to that evening, or through the days after). Our rental apartment was up a very, very, steep hill (maybe 1 mile from the finish line) and I walked it absolutely no problem just after the marathon. Then took a short nap, showered and was back out the door!  I honestly thought I'd be in, nauseous and recovering for the next 5 hours. And one thing I figured was an absolute given was foot-soreness or blisters but I had nothing. I credit this to running nice and slow but who knows. :) Perhaps my body is meant to run this distance.... :) There will be more, I know that for sure.  

Lindsey, my marathon-partner-in-crime brought this over to me that evening and it was much appreciated. It was all I could really have though and soon after found my way back to my bed!