Marathon Madness!

Some of our good friends from Chicago came to Ohio last weekend to visit and so that Angie and I could run the Cleveland Marathon together! They got to Ohio late Friday night.  We woke up and enjoyed a breakfast of eggs, fruit and cheesecake.  (Yes, I said cheesecake) It was Angie's birthday cake, so what were we supposed to do? Plus we were supposed to be carbo loading right?  After breakfast Angie and I went to Local Roots and to Clothes Minded downtown.  A girl's gotta shop!

We enjoyed walking around the IX center expo, getting all our freebee's and goodies.  The boys especially liked the VW area.
After that we headed to our hotel so the kiddos could swim while John went and picked up some AMAZING Italian food from a nearby Authentic restaurant. 

It was delicious!!!  The  hotel had a huge back patio so we couldn't resist eating our dinner out there, it was PERFECT, the weather was perfect too!

Early the next morning we ventured to the downtown Brown's stadium which was the starting line for the race.  Here is our little support crew below:)

 

Can you find us?? Now this should have been our first warning but neither of us thought about it.  Notice we are in our tanks at the start line?? Normally this early at any race you are in sweatshirts or some people in garbage bags but no, it was already warm enough we were all very comfortable just standing there...uh oh.  If you read through Cleveland Marathon blog's no one seemed to be worried at all about the rising temperatures so none of us runners were either!

This is us around the half way point which was the only place really for spectators/supporters to see you which is a real bummer. At this point it was definitely starting to warm up but both Angie and I and even Dreya below all felt like it was bearable!  Until we ran another couple miles in the hot, STILL (no breeze whatsoever, even the popular windmill by the stadium was hardly moving which should have been another sign) sun beating down on us weather with absolutely no shade.  The runner with me in the green was Meredith, we found each other around the half way point and ran together for several miles which was a huge help! I was still really hoping to break 4 hours, maybe with Meredith's help! 

Around mile 20 it just seemed like the water stops were farther and farther apart and suddenly people started walking all around me.  Trying to run then having to walk again not long after starting. By this point there was a red flag warning up (which many of us runners were not aware of at all until some of the later water stops).  Men and women were on the side of the road cramping up badly, struggling to run/walk and to even breathe.  Ambulances could be heard all around us it seemed like, heading out to help runners.  Meredith and I got separated as my walking breaks became more frequent. A runner named Wendall was a huge help to many of us runners at this point.  He kept finding us walkers and encouraging us, telling us just to run with him, nice, slow and steady and he will get us through this.  He was so supportive and helped many of us keep going.  He had ran several marathons but was having severe cramps this race but even through all that I'll never forget how amazing he was.  I was so depleted and tired at this point it was all I could do to keep going, I had to walk several times, each time I did it was harder to keep going.  Around mile 25 I saw my little support crew and just wanted to stop right there and cry.  They ran out to me and started running with me, John, Jayden and Joel.  It was SO hot and they had to be so exhausted but they refused to stop running with me. You can see below Joel's hot little face and yet he and Jayden kept saying, " Come on Mommy, your doing amazing!" "Keep running Mommy, your doing great, your almost there!" I seriously don't think I could have done it with out them.  I was so mentally and physically done at that point I would have just walked the rest of the way I just felt so defeated from the stinking hot sun.  There was just no break from it and no breeze, I was having a pity party for myself and all the other runners out there.  Thankfully they didn't let me focus on that anymore...only on finishing my race!

Both of us, like so many other runners that day were just so thankful to finish!  It was so different then my first Marathon when you just felt so excited to cross over the finish line.  Instead you felt empty, not much emotion and just thankful to have MADE it!  Thankful to have even finished.  I ended up having to have John take me to the medical tent and had to get an IV and a cold ice shower to cool down my body temperature.  You can just never predict what the weather will bring.  The medical tent was crazy busy, my Doc said it was the busiest he's ever seen in the years he's worked at the tent.  Finishing time: 4:10:58

                                          Here we are just thankful to be done!

After a nice long shower we went to eat at Max and Erma's and we got the 3 course meals of course!

Even though it was such a weird experience and race it was overall still such an unforgettable weekend.  Each race seems to be a learning experience but most of all it was just so nice to spend time with the Ramsden family once again! Thank you Derek & Angie for another fun weekend together:)