My first marathon (Pacific Crest 2005)

This is a look back at my first marathon. The race was the Pacific Crest Marathon in Sunriver, Oregon on Saturday, June 25, 2005. I finished with a time of 3:51:09 (8:48 pace). I finished 31 of 129 runners and first in my age group.

This was my first marathon. After many months of training it all come down to this race. I was very nervous, but I had run 26 miles on my own, so deep down I knew I could run it.

We arrived in Sunriver the week before the marathon. We stayed there for about a week. Mostly hanging out, and seeing different things around Sunriver. We eat dinner at an Italian restaurant for my birthday, and went to Crater Lake. I ran just twice before the marathon. I did two 10 mile runs within Sunriver. I did not run the Thursday and Friday before the marathon. I had no real goal when it came to the marathon, but I wanted to have fun and run well.

The morning of the race, it was cool, but like the week before was to be clear and sunny. It was very warm as time went by. My mom walked me down to the start line, to see me off. There were a few hundred people there, and it was exciting.The gun went off and we were off.

I don't really remember thinking much about my pacing, or trying to run slower at the start. But I do remember thinking to myself, that "I am doing it!!" I was running my first marathon. I thought that most people never run marathons, and that by doing this I am doing something that a small percentage of people ever do. Near the end of the race I realized that I was going to run in under four hours, and that I was on target for a 3:50 marathon. I pushed hard at the end, but I was tired and didn't have a whole lot in the tank.

When I crossed the finish line, I was welcomed by my family which all seemed very proud of me. It felt great. I'm looking forward to my next marathon! What was a bonus is that I was the only person in my age group so I received a first place age group award. Also the next day my mom, and sisters ran in the 10k or 5k events. So it ended up being a really nice weekend with the family.